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RELIGION    OF    THE    ANCIENT    EGYPTIANS. 


RELIGION    OF    THE    ANCIENT 
EGYPTIANS. 


ALFRED     WIEDEMANN,     Ph.D. 

Professor  in  the  University  of  Bonn. 
AUTHOR  OF  "aegyptische  geschichte,"  "  herodot's  zweites  buch, 

"ancient  EGYPTIAN   DOCTRINE  OF    IMMORTALITY,"   ETC. 


WITH  SEVENTY-THREE  ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  THE  MONUMENTS. 


LONDON : 

H.      GREVEL      &      CO., 
33,     KING    STREET,    COVENT    GARDEN,    W.C. 

1897. 


Printed  by  Hazell,  Watson,  &  Viney,  Ld.,  London  and  Aylesbury. 


PREFACE. 


Y7  GYPT  stands  pre-eminent  among  all  the  nations 
-*— ^  of  antiquity  as  the  land  in  which  every  civic 
and  public  interest  was  dominated  by  religion.  The 
great  prominence  of  the  gods  in  the  known  texts 
is  doubtless  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  temples 
and  tombs  are  the  chief  remains  in  the  country, 
and  that  it  is  from  these  sources  that  most  of  the 
documents  in  question  have  come  down  to  us.  Yet 
even  when  objects  which  had  been  intended  for 
secular  use  only  are  discovered,  they  generally  prove 
to  be  in  some  way  or  other  connected  with  the 
worship  of  the  higher  powers ;  and  the  assertion 
of  Herodotus  as  to  the  exceptional  piety  of  the 
Egyptians  is  fully  ratified  by  the  results  of  modern 
research.  In  Pagan  times  this  singular  national 
devoutness  of  a  people  regarded  as  worthy  of  pecu- 
liar reverence  on  account  of  their  extreme  antiquity 
moved  Greek  and  Roman  writers  to  devote  more 
attention  to  the  Egyptian  religion  than  to  that   of 


vi  PREFACE. 

any  other  nation  :  hence  It  is  that  we  find  much 
valuable  information  on  this  subject  in  the  works  of 
the  classical  writers,  although  we  cannot  utilize  it 
for  scientific  purposes  as  it  stands.  When  the 
fathers  of  the  Church  and  the  Christian  apologists 
came  to  write  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Egyptian  re- 
ligion, they  singled  out  from  them  all  that  was  most 
foolish  and  repulsive,  in  accordance  with  their  object 
of  pointing  out  the  absurdities  in  which  paganism 
necessarily  involved  even  the  most  cultured  of 
peoples.  The  classical  writers,  on  the  other  hand, 
showed  as  little  critical  discrimination  in  this  as  in 
most  other  fields  of  scientific  inquiry  :  they  identified 
their  own  Greek  and  Roman  divinities  with  those 
which  they  found  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile,  lightly 
transferred  Greek  doctrines  into  Egyptian  teaching, 
and  ascribed  to  the  latter  systems  of  religious  belief 
really  of  their  own,  devising,  although  the  principal 
deities  figuring  in  them  were  invested  with  Egyptian 
names.  Thus  it  is  that  Plutarch's  interesting  work 
on  I  sis  and  Osiris^  is  in  fact  an  exposition  of  the 
author's  own  conception  of  the  universe,  notwith- 
standing the  large  proportion  of  genuine  Egyptian 
material  which  it  contains.  And  though  we  find 
the   names  of  Egyptian  gods  in  the  works  of  the 

'  TTfpt  "IcTibos  KOL  'Oo-t'piSof— of  which  the   best   edition  is   that  of 
Parthey,  Berlin,  1850. 


PREFACE.  Vll 

Neo-Platonlsts  and  of  the  Gnostics,  everything  is 
interpreted  in  accordance  with  the  new  philosophy, 
and  the  Ancient  Egyptian  classification  is  entirely 
changed.  But,  in  spite  of  these  drawbacks,  the 
information  as  to  the  Egyptian  religion  contained 
in  the  works  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  writers  is  both 
valuable  and  extensive,^  and  it  is  to  these  that  we 
are  indebted  for  the  preservation  of  many  doctrines 
as  to  which  the  monuments  are  silent,  but  which 
are  nevertheless  undoubtedly  of  Ancient  Egyptian 
origin. 

By  the  decipherment  of  the  hieroglyphics  materials 
fuller  and  unsophisticated  were  made  accessible  to 
students  of  the  Egyptian  religion,  and,  struck  by 
the  wealth  of  them,  Champollion  at  once  began  to 
publish  his  Panthdon  Egyptie^i  (Paris,  1823-31), 
which,  like  many  another  work  of  that  great  scholar, 
was  brought  to  a  standstill  by  his  early  death. 
Wilkinson  subsequently  gave  considerable  attention 
to  the  same  subject,  and  in  the  last  volume  of  his 
Manjters  and  Ctcsfoms  {London,  1841)  we  have  an 
illustrated  catalogue  of  Egyptian  deities  that  is  still 
valuable  for  reference,  although  Lanzone's  Dizio- 
nario   di  Mitologia   cgizia    (Turin,     1881-6),    with 

'  The  best  collection  of  these  references  is  in  JABLONSKI, 
Pantheo7iAegyj)tiorum,  YvdsiMoTt,  1750-52.  Vrictiakd's  Analysts 
of  the  Egyptian  Mythology,  London,  1819,  is  less  satisfactory 
though  frequently  quoted. 


viii  PREFACE. 

respect  to  both  the  number  of  deities  figured  and 
the  specification  of  texts  referring  to  them,  has 
thrown  into  the  shade  all  similar  works  by  his 
predecessors. 

As  regards  Egyptian  dogma,  the  monotheistic, 
or  rather  henotheistic,  factor  has  been  emphasized 
by  E.  de  Rouge,^  Pierret,-  and  Le  Page  Renouf ;^ 
Tiele,*  and,  latterly,  E.  Meyer,^  have  endeavoured 
to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  religion,  and  Brugsch  ^ 
to  prove  that  the  Egyptian  religion  was  a  coherent 
system  of  belief,  corresponding  somewhat  to  that 
imagined  by  Plutarch.  But  far  weightier  than  any 
of  these  writings  are  the  essays  which  Maspero  has 
devoted  to  the  subject,  and  which  are  now  for  the 
most  part  collected  in  his  Iitudes  de  Mythologie  et 
de  Religion  (Paris,  1893).  Oxi^  of  these  essays  is 
a  criticism  of  Brugsch's  treatise  on  the  mythology, 
and  is  emphatically  outspoken  in  condemnation  of 
that  distinguished  scholar's  point  of  view.  A  multi- 
tude of  works  of  a  more  or  less  popular  character  by 
writers  who  draw  all  their  information  at  second- 
hand need  not  here  be  noticed.     If  to  one  who  knows 

^  See  his  articles  on  this  subject  in  the  Revue  Archeologique , 
N.S.,  I. 
2  Essai stcr  la  myikologze  Egyptiemie,  Paris,  1879. 
^  Lectures  on  the  Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion,  London,  1880. 
^  Histoire  comparative  des  anciens  religions,  Paris,  1882. 
*  Geschichte  Aegy;ptens,  Berlin,  1887. 
^  Religion  und  Mythologie  der  alien  Aegypter,  Lti^zig,  1885-90. 


PREFACE. 


the  language  there  is  imminent  risk  of  reading  his 
own  ideas  into  the  reHgious  texts  with  which  he  is 
deahng,  this  danger  is  immeasurably  increased  for 
such  as  are  unable  to  study  the  texts  in  the  original, 
and  who  are  thus  thrown  on  translations  for  their 
authorities.  Too  easily  they  find  statements  in 
support  of  their  theories  when  simply  misled  by 
some  obscure  rendering  of  the  translator.  It  is 
especially  true  of  Egypt  that  no  original  work 
in  the  study  of  the  religion  is  possible  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  language.  Moreover  many  of 
the  most  important  religious  texts  are  still  un- 
translated, or  can  be  found  only  in  obsolete  and 
untrustworthy  versions. 

The  present  work  is  based  throughout  on  original 
texts,  of  which  the  most  significant  passages  are 
rendered  as  literally  as  possible  in  order  that  the 
reader  may  test  the  justice  of  the  conclusions  drawn 
from  them.  And  since,  owing  to  the  longwindedness 
of  Egyptian  scribes,  it  is  altogether  impracticable  to 
give  translations  in  full,  references  to  complete 
publications  of  the  inscriptions  and  papyri  from 
which  they  are  made  will  be  found  in  the  footnotes. 
The  work  makes  no  pretence  to  completeness  in 
the  sense  of  noting  every  single  demon  among  the 
thousands  which  figure  in  Egyptian  mythology,  and 
each  local  myth  to  which  any  odd  reference  might 


X  PREFACE. 

be  found.  Such  a  scheme  would  have  resulted  in 
a  mere  assemblage  of  names  without  connotation  ; 
of  titles  with  no  distinguishable  meaning ;  of  frag- 
mentary myths  of  which  in  the  present  state  of 
Egyptology  no  clear  account  can  possibly  be  given. 

Neither  does  the  writer  wish  to  enter  into  any 
discussion  of  current  hypotheses  as  to  the  inner 
significance  and  origin  of  the  Egyptian  religion, 
nor  yet  to  propound  any  views  of  his  own  on  the 
subject  :  he  is  convinced  that,  however  easy  it  may 
be  to  make  assertions  on  these  points,  there  is 
indeed  little  that  can  be  proved  with  regard  to  them. 
His  aim  is  a  modest  one  :  avoiding  any  attempt 
to  interpret  or  to  systematize,  he  has  endeavoured 
to  set  before  the  reader  the  principal  deities,  myths, 
religious  ideas  and  doctrines  as  they  are  to  be  found 
in  the  texts,  more  especially  dwelling  on  such  as 
have  important  bearings  on  the  history  of  religion. 
The  friendly  reception  accorded  to  the  German 
edition  of  this  book  has  testified  to  a  certain 
demand  on  the  part  of  the  public  for  some  account 
of  Egyptian  beliefs  which  should  aim  at  establishing 
the  facts  of  the  case  rather  than  at  furnishing 
material  in  favour  of  any  theory  as  to  the  philo- 
sophy or  genesis  of  religion. 

The  book  has  been  carefully  revised  and  aug- 
mented for  the  English  edition,  and  it  is  hoped  that 


PREFACE.  xi 

it  has  thereby  gained  throughout  both  in  clearness 
and  in  fulness  of  statement.  This  edition  has, 
moreover,  the  advantage  of  illustrations,  and  these 
will  convey  to  the  reader  a  better  idea  of  the  forms 
attributed  by  the  Egyptians  to  their  gods  than 
any  mere  description  can  do.  Finally,  the  addition 
of  a  full  Index  will  facilitate  reference,  especially 
as  regards  such  deities  as  may  have  received  but 
isolated  or  incidental  notice  in  the  following  pages. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  here  express  my  warmest 
thanks  to  my  translator — who  also  recently  placed 
before  the  English  public  my  little  treatise  on 
The  Ancient  Egyptian  Doctrine  of  the  Immortality 
of  the  Soul — for  the  care  and  pains  ungrudgingly 
bestowed  upon  the  work. 

ALFRED   WIEDEMANN. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION I 


CHAPTER    II. 
SUN    WORSHIP 14 

CHAPTER    III 
SOLAR   MYTHS 5^ 

CHAPTER   IV. 
THE   PASSAGE  OF   THE   SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDER- 
WORLD   81 

CHAPTER   V. 
THE   CHIEF   DEITIES IO3 

CHAPTER   VI. 
FOREIGN   DEITIES 148 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VII. 
THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS I72 


PAGE 


CHAPTER   Vni. 
OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE 20/ 

CHAPTER   IX. 
THE  OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE  OF   IMMORTALITY        .  .      234 

CHAPTER   X. 
MAGIC  AND   SORCERY 261 

CHAPTER   XL 
AMULETS 284 

INDEX 309 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FIG.                                                                                      PAGE 

FIG. 

PAGE 

I.  Ra.t  Taui 

15 

18.  Nu     uplifting     the     Sun 

2.  Obelisk  at  Matarieh  (He- 

Bark  at  the  End  of  the 

liopolis) 

19 

Night     .         .         .         . 

ICO 

3.  Madet  Boat      . 

22 

19.  Amen  Ra. 

118 

4.  Sekti  Boat 

23 

20.  Amen     Ra,     his    Sacred 

5.  Bark  of  Ra 

24 

Rams  and  Goose  . 

119 

6.  Ra 

26 

21.  Amen  Ra  as  Goose. 

121 

7.  Heremkhuti  (Harmakhis) 

22.  Mut 

123 

and         lusaas         with 

23.  Ment 

125 

Rameses  II.  . 

29 

24.  Bakh,  the  Bull  of  Ment 

126 

8.  Khepera  .... 

31 

25.  Hekt 

129 

9.  Shu           .... 

33 

26.  Khnum,  Satit,  and  Anukt 

130 

10.  Tefnut      .... 

34 

27.  Ptah  (Hephaestos)  . 

132 

II.  The     Aten,      Khuenaten 

28.  PtahTatunen  . 

133 

and  his  Family 

37 

29.  Sokar  Osiris     . 

135 

12.  Sun  God  upliftingthe  Disk 

46 

30.  One  of  the  Khnumu 

136 

13.  The  Celestial  Cow  . 

65 

31.  Sekhet     . 

137 

14.  Winged  Sun  Disk    . 

75 

32.  Nefer  Tum 

138 

15.  Journey      of     the      Sun 

33.  Imhetep  (Imuthes)  . 

139 

through  the  First  Hour 

34.  Neith 

.    140 

of  the  Night  . 

86 

35.  Nekhebit  (Eileithyia) 

141 

16.  Sun    God     entering    the 

36.  Uazit  (Buto)     . 

.    141 

Underworld  . 

97 

1   37.  Maat 

.    142 

17.  Gate  in  the  Underworld 

98 

,   38.  Hathor     . 

.    143 

LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FIG. 

PAGE 

FIG. 

PAGE 

39.  Sebak  (Sukhos),  seated 

144 

57.  Osiris  enshrined 

216 

40.  Hapi 

145 

58.  Osiris  and  Isis  . 

218 

41.  Anta 

151 

59.  Mummy      on      Funerary 

42.  Reshpu     . 

152 

Couch,  attended  by  Isis 

43.  Kedesh    .         .         .         . 

153 

Nephthys,  and  the  four 

44.  Turn,  Safekht,  and  Thoth 

Funerary  Genii 

220 

inscribing     the     King's 

60.  Heremheb between  Horus 

Name    on    the    Sacred 

and  Set 

222 

Tree  of  HeliopoHs 

156 

61.  Herpekhred          (Harpo- 

45-  Bes 

160 

krates)  .         .         .         . 

223 

46.  Bes,  in  decorative  art 

161 

62.  Horus  and  Amenophis  II. 

224 

47.  Birth  of  Queen  Hatshep- 

63.  The  Ibis  of  Thoth    . 

225 

sut         .         .         .         . 

162 

64.  Thoth       .         .         .         . 

226 

48.  BesandHerpekhred(Har- 

65.  Anubis     .         .         .         . 

228 

pokrates) 

164 

66.  Anubis  and  Mummy 

229 

49.  Sepd         .         .         .         . 

165 

67.  Seb  separated  from    Nut 

50.  Taurt    and    the     Hathor 

by  Shu  .... 

231 

Cow       .... 

169 

68.  Nut  pouring  Water  to  the 

51.  The  Apis  Bull. 

187 

Dead  from  a  Palm 

232 

52.  An  Apis  Stela  . 

190 

69.  The     Mummy     at     the 

53.  Sukhos  (Sebak)  in  ani- 

Tomb   .... 

237 

mal  form 

192 

70.  Shrines  of  the  two  Khun- 

54.  The  Bennu  Bird 

193 

sus         .... 

275 

55.  The  Great  Sphinx    .     ,    . 

194 

71.  Personified  Ankh     . 

288 

56.  Plan  of  small  Temple  of 

72.  An  Hypocephalus    . 

298 

Amen  at  Karnak    , 

201 

73.  The  Mehurt  Cow     . 

305 

RELIGION  OF  THE  ANCIENT  EGYPTIANS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

^  I  ^HE  attempt  has  often  been  made  to  hit  off  a  national 
-*-  characteristic  in  some  apt  epithet ;  the  Romans  have 
been  denominated  "  brave,"  the  Israelites  "  religious,"  the 
Assyrians  "cruel."  In  like  manner  the  Egyptians  might 
be  called  "  conservative  "  in  the  first  and  strictest  sense  of 
the  word.  While  such  appellations  are  only  conditionally 
applicable  to  other  nationalities,  here  we  have  a  charac- 
teristic which  the  inhabitants  of  the  Nile  Valley  invariably 
exhibit.  The  Egyptian  people  could  never  bring  themselves 
to  recognize  any  form  of  language,  script,  government, 
manners  and  customs  as  antiquated,  and  they  steadfastly 
retained  their  hold  upon  every  stage  of  their  development 
during  the  whole  course  of  a  national  history  which  lasted  for 
thousands  of  years.  Obviously  there  could  be  no  denying 
that  progress  was  made  and  that  new  views  were  attained 
to,  either  as  the  outcome  of  reflection  or  in  consequence 
of  foreign  influence  ;  but,  although  the  Egyptians  could 
not  hold  aloof  from  change,  their  acceptance  of  it  involved 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

no  casting  off  of  the  old  and  cherished  ideas,  which  were 
retained  and  allowed  to  subsist  on  equal  footing  with  the 
new  modes  of  thought.  This  explains  why  the  Egyptians, 
after  having  attained  to  an  alphabetic  system  of  writing, 
went  on  using  the  signs  for  words  and  syllables  in  which 
their  script  had  originated.  Hence  also  it  came  about 
that  when  the  Egyptian  monarchy  had  become  absolute, 
titles  and  offices  which  prevailed  in  the  feudal  period,  when 
the  king  was  reckoned  only  as  first  among  his  peers,  still 
continued  to  exist  in  connexion  with  the  court  and  with 
official  life.  Innumerable  incongruities  were  the  natural 
result :  titles  did  not  correspond  to  offices,  nor  words  to 
meanings.  The  Egyptian  aversion  to  allowing  anything 
to  be  lost  of  what  had  formed  the  possessions  and  institu- 
tions of  their  forefathers — of  never  losing  connexion  with 
the  past,  so  that  all  might  remain  as  it  had  been  "  since 
the  times  of  the  god  Ra  "—outweighed  all  practical  con- 
siderations in  their  minds. 

In  the  natural  course  of  things  this  sentiment  must  have 
received  some  modification  from  the  changing  aspects  of 
civic  life  ;  for  though  names  and  forms  might  be  steadfastly 
retained,  it  could  not  be  so  with  the  substance  when  any 
change  of  circumstances  had  become  general.  But  it  was 
otherwise  in  the  domain  of  the  spiritual  ;  there  contempla- 
tion and  thought  were  governed  by  feeling  alone,  and  no 
rude  truth  was  permitted  to  disturb  a  system.  It  was 
pre-eminently  in  his  religion  that  the  Egyptian  allowed 
full  play  to  his  conservative  nature.  The  natural  pheno- 
mena, the  few  general  truths  upon  which  that  religion 
was  based,  could   be   so  variously   explained   and   trans- 


INCOHERENCE   OF    EGYPTIAN    RELIGION.  3 

formed  that  no  abandonment  of  old  opinions  for  the  sake 
of  new — however  desirable  according  to  our  ideas — was 
in  the  least  necessary  in  Egyptian  opinion.  The  national 
bent  of  the  people  towards  mysticism  helped  them  easily 
over  such  paradoxes  as  might  arise ;  and  where  these 
might  seem  insoluble  to  earthly  reason  their  interpretation 
could  be  regarded  as  a  profound  mystery  whose  nature 
the  godhead  would  reveal  to  the  blessed  in  the  life  to 
come. 

On  this  account  the  Ancient  Egyptian  religion  is  of  the 
deepest  interest.  Not  only  docs  it  contain  the  simplest 
forms  under  which  the  nation  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile 
conceived  of  its  gods,  and  the  ceremonies  with  which  it 
worshipped  them  in  the  days  when  very  restricted  means 
were  at  its  disposal  for  the  adornment  of  divine  service; 
but  side  by  side  with  these  are  the  beliefs  of  later  times, 
a  constantly  increasing  number  of  divinities,  a  cult  growing 
continually  more  refined  and  ornate,  new  modes  of  worship, 
and  divinities  of  foreign  origin.  All  the  different  systems 
of  thought  which  grew  out  of  Egyptian  religious  belief  in 
the  course  of  centuries  are  found  together  in  the  texts  ;  the 
earlier  forms  as  well  as  those  which  succeeded  them  have 
all  alike  been  retained.  Hence  it  was  inevitable  that  con- 
tradictions of  all  kinds  should  abound,  but  they  did  not 
disturb  the  Egyptian,  for  he  never  attempted  to  systematize 
his  conceptions  of  the  different  divinities  into  a  homo- 
geneous religion.  It  is  open  to  us  to  speak  of  the  religious 
ideas  of  the  Egyptians,  but  not  of  an  Egyptian  religion  ; 
and  we  must  carefully  bear  in  mind  this  fact,  which  cannot 
fail   to  obtrude  itself  upon  every  one  who  examines  the 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

texts  without  prejudice,  and  which  the  reader  will  perceive 
clearly  from  such  extracts  as  will  be  brought  to  his  notice 
in  the  following  pages.     Again  and  again  has  the  attempt 
been    made   to   formulate    the   Egyptian    religion    into   a 
consistent  system,  and  thus  to  credit  the  nation  with  what 
never  was  theirs.     All  such  performances,  however  brilliant 
in  themselves,  are  now  regarded  as  failures  by  scientific 
men  ;  they  are  based  upon  an  arbitrary  choice  of  passages 
in  the  texts  which  the  writer  has  selected  to  support  a 
preconceived  view,  while   taking   no   account   of  the   far 
greater  number  of  passages  which  do  not  agree  with  it. 
Besides  the  impossibility  of  formulating  any  comprehen- 
sive system  of  this  kind,  there  is  that  of  deciding  as  to 
which  was  the  oldest  form  of  the  Egyptian  religion,  and 
of  demonstrating   whether   this  was   monotheistic — as  on 
general  grounds  it  has  often  been  assumed — or  whether, 
as  others  assert,  it  was  based  upon  pantheism,  polytheism, 
ancestor   worship,   worship   of    vegetable    or    animal    life 
and  their  reproductive  powers,  belief  in  the  divine  power 
of  the  sun,  or  other,  religious  ideas.     All  these  forms  of 
belief  are  to  be  found  more  or  less  clearly  represented  in 
Egyptian  religion,  but   it   cannot   be   proved   historically 
which  are  the  earlier  and  which  the  later.     Set  forth  side 
by  side  in  single  sentences  or  at  length,  they  are  all  extant 
in  the  oldest  of  the  longer  religious  texts  which  have  come 
down  to  us — namely,  the  Pyramid  inscriptions  of  the  Vth 
and  Vlth  dynasties.     As  far  as  our  knowledge  of  Ancient 
Egypt    has    hitherto   extended,   research   has   determined 
nothing   indisputable  as  to  the  origins  of  their  national 
religion,  their  form  of  government,  their  writing,  or  their 


CHURCH   AND   STATE.  5 

racial  descent.  On  the  contrary,  the  more  material  is  made 
accessible  and  the  more  thoroughly  it  is  studied,  the  more 
obscure  do  these  questions  of  origin  become.  One  theory 
is  disproved  after  another  without  being  supplanted  by 
any  demonstrable  truth.  In  Egypt,  as  in  other  countries, 
history,  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word,  knows  nothing  of 
its  own  beginnings.  In  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge, 
all  that  the  science  of  religion  can  do  as  regards  Egypt  is 
to  follow  the  same  course  once  traversed  by  the  Egyptians, 
but  in  the  reverse  direction.  Where  they  combined  we  must 
isolate.  By  study  of  the  texts  we  must  seek  to  disentangle 
the  intermingled  doctrines,  to  sort  out  the  separate  pieces 
composing  that  motley  mosaic  presented  by  the  Egyptian 
belief  in  higher  powers.  In  this  way  we  shall  find  that 
we  can  obtain  a  series  of  separate  and  distinct  doctrines, 
each  of  which  comprises  an  independent  sphere  of  thought  ; 
the  combination  of  these  doctrines,  however,  though 
attempted  by  the  Egyptians,  could  never  be  logical. 

Before  proceeding  to  consider  the  most  important  of 
these  circles  of  ideas,  which  partly  centre  round  certain 
forms  of  deity  and  partly  round  some  one  fundamental 
idea,  we  must  briefly  examine  into  the  origin  of  the 
Egyptian  state.  Many  important  points  of  her  religious 
doctrine  can  thus  be  elucidated,  as  is  always  the  case 
where  religion  and  government  are  so  closely  coinci- 
dent as  they  were  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile. 

The  Ancient  Egyptian  state  was  formed  by  the  union  of 
many  smaller  states  which  occupied  the  Nile  Valley  in 
some  prehistoric  period.  These  states  were  not  merged 
at  that  unification  of  the  kingdom  which  legend  ascribes 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

to  the  first  human  monarch  of  Egypt,  Menes.  In  a  certain 
sense  they  continued  to  exist,  for  they  remained  in  posses- 
sion of  their  own  religious,  political,  and  military  adminis- 
trations, acknowledging  the  king  as  their  liege  lord  only  so 
far  as  to  assign  him  in  most  cases  the  part  of  confirming 
the  princes  in  their  rank,  the  post  of  commander  in  chief 
in  case  of  war,  the  bestowal  of  posts  of  honour  and  of 
titles,  and  the  receipt  of  certain  taxes.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  he  could  by  right  depose  the  subordinate  princes. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  he  did  depose  them,  but  only  after 
overcoming  them  in  war,  and  thus  used  the  right  of  a 
conqueror  rather  than  that  of  a  Pharaoh.  Nevertheless 
he  was  apparently  not  permitted  to  retain  land  so  obtained 
as  his  private  property,  but  was  obliged  to  bestow  it  upon 
some  one  who  entered  upon  the  rights  and  duties  of  the 
deposed  prince  and  could  bequeath  the  province  to  his  own 
successors.  It  was  owing  to  this  invariable  transmission 
of  the  fief  that  the  ancient  territorial  divisions  lasted 
down  to  the  latest  times.  Changes  rarely  occurred,  but 
occasionally  two  provinces  would  be  united  by  inheritance, 
or  two  which  had  been  united  would  be  again  separated. 
From  the  Pyramid  period  until  the  times  of  the  Ptolemies 
and  of  the  Roman  emperors  certain  districts  are  specified 
by  the  texts  as  substantially  unchanged.  The  Ancient 
Egyptian    name    for    these    provinces    was    Jiesp}      The 

'  In  the  transliterations  of  Egyptian  words  h  is  a  hard  h.  kh,  sh, 
th,  each  represent  a  single  alphabetic  sign  in  the  original.  The 
signs  rendered  a,  a,  a,  i,  u,  more  nearly  approach  to  the  Semitic 
semi-vowels  than  to  our  vowels,  but  they  are  used  as  vowel  signs 
in  the  rendering  of  foreign,  and  sometimes  even  in  Egyptian  words. 
Generally  the  Egyptian,  like  the  Semite,  did  not  write  the  vowels  ; 


TERRITORIAL   SUBDIVISIONS.  7 

Greeks  called  them  nomes  (vofwi),  a  designation  retained 
by  the  Romans,  under  whose  rule  they  enjoyed  so  much 
independence  as  to  be  allowed  to  issue  a  coinage  of  their 
own.  Each  nome  consisted  of  four  subdivisions  :  the 
capital,  which  was  the  seat  of  authority  and  the  residence 
of  the  nomarch  and  of  the  principal  deity  ;  the  regularly 
tilled  arable  land  ;  the  marshes,  which  were  mostly  used 
as  pasture  and  for  the  cultivation  of  water  plants  ;  and 
lastly  the  canals,  which  were  in  charge  of  special  officials. 
The  control  of  the  canals  was  necessarily  far  more 
centralized  than  that  of  the  rest  of  the  country,  for  the 
regular  irrigation  of  Egypt  can  only  be  secured  when 
directed  by  a  single  authority  which  opposes  in  the  com- 
mon interest  any  attempt  to  cut  off  and  divert  the  water 
for  the  gratification  of  private  ends.  Such  an  attempt  was 
regarded  in  Egyptian  morals  as  a  serious  crime,  which 
the  godhead  itself  would  punish  in  the  life  to  come ;  ^  but 
the  need  for  such  a  threat  testifies  to  the  readiness  with 
which  an  Egyptian  gave  himself  to  the  practice. 

The  effects  of  this  division  into  nomes  on  the  condition 

hence,  where  a  vowel  is  to  be  inserted  on  phonetic  or  other  grounds, 
it  is  here  denoted  generally  by  e,  which  may  thus  correspond  to 
the  most  various  vowel  sounds  in  the  ancient  language.  The  true 
vocalization  of  the  words  is,  as  a  rule,  unknown,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages  the  Greek  transcriptions  (but  not  the  names  of  Greek 
deities  identified  with  the  Egyptian)  are  generally  employed  when 
such  are  to  be  found,  Ammon,  however,  being  given  in  the  usual 
English  form  of  "  Amen."  These  correspond  to  the  pronunciation 
more  accurately  than  a  mere  transliteration  of  the  Egyptian  signs, 
which  will  be  given  once  only  in  the  case  of  proper  names  for  which 
there  is  an  adequate  Greek  equivalent. 

d  stands  throughout  for  the  Egyptian  radical  so — D  =^  y.  z?  simply 
indicates  that  the  u  is  to  be  pronounced  as  in  "  rule." 

^  £00^  of  the  Dead,  cxxv.,  1.  28. 


8 


INTRODUCTION. 


and  development  of  Egypt,  as  well  as  on  its  religion,  were 
so  important  that  a  list  of  them  is  here  given  in  tabular 
form,  together  with  certain  particulars. 


UPPER  EGYPT. 


NOME. 

CAPITAL. 

DEITY. 

I 

Ta-Kens 

Ab    (Elephantine),    later 
Nub-t  (Ombos) 

Khnum 

2 

Tes-Hor 

Deb  (ApoUinopolis  magna, 
Edfu) 

Hor-behudet 

3 

Ten 

Nekheb  (Eileithyia),  later 
Sene(Latopolis,  Esneh) 

Nekheb 

4 

Os-t 

Os-t  (Thebes),  later  An-res 

Amen  Ra,  later 

(Hermonthis) 

Ment 

5 

Hor-ui 

Kebti  (Koptos) 

Khem 

6 

Aa-du 

Ta  -  en-  terer     (Tentyris, 
Denderah) 

Hat-hor    ' 

7 

Sekhem 

Ha  (Diospolis  parva) 

Hat-hor  ' 

8 

Abd 

Abdu(Abydos),Teni(This) 

Anher 

9 

Khem 

Apu  (Panopolis) 

Khem 

10 

Uazt 

Deh&  (Aphroditopolis) 

Hat-hor  ' 

Neter-ui 

Du-ka  (Antaeopolis) 

Hor  (Horus)  "^ 

II 

Set 

Shas-hetep  (Hypsele) 

Khnum 

12 

Du-f 

N(i-ent-bak  (Antaeopolis) 

Hor  (Horus) 

13 

Atef-khent 

Sau-t  (Lycopolis,  Siut) 

Ap-uat 

14 

Atef-peh,  later  An- 
tinoites 

Kesi  (Kusae) 

Hat-hor   ■ 

15 

On 

Khemennu  (Hermopolis) 

Thoth 

16 

Meh-mahez 

Hebennii  (Hipponon) 

Hor  (Horus)     " 

17 

Anfip 

Ka-sa  (Kynopolis) 

Anup  (Anubis) 

18 

Sep 

Ha-suten  (Alabastronpolis) 

Anup  (Anubis) 

19 

Cab 

Pa-mazet  (Oxyrynkhos) 

Set 

20 

Atef-khent 

Khenen-sfi  (Heracleopolis 

Hor-shef  ( Arsa- 

magna) 

phes) 

21 

Atef-peh 

Semen-Hor 

Khnum 

Ta-she 

Ta-shed     (Krokodilopolis 
in  the  Fayum) 

Sebek 

22 

Maten 

Tep-ah  (Aphroditopolis) 

Hat-hor    . 

NOMES   AND   DEITIES. 


LOWER   EGYPT. 


NOME. 

CAPITAL. 

DEITY. 

I 

An<ib    hez    (white 
wall) 

Men-nefer  (Memphis) 

Ptah 

2 

Ai 

Sekhem  (Letopolis) 

Hor-ur 

3 

Ament  (the  West) 

Nu-ent-Hapi  (Apis) 

Hat-hor 

4 

Sepi-res 

Zeka 

Amen  Ra 

5 

Sepi-em-het 

Sau  (Sais) 

Neith 

6 

Ka-set 

Khasuu  (3ois) 

Amen  Ra 

7 

ament 

Sent-nefer 

HH 

8 

abd 

Thukot  (Sukot) 

Tum 

9 

Athi 

Pa-Asiri  (Busiris) 

Osiris 

10 

Ka-kem 

Ha-her-ab  (Athribis) 

Hor  (Horus)  "^ 

II 

Ka-hebes 

Ka-hebes  (Kabasos) 

Isis 

12 

Ka-theb 

Theb-neter  (Sebennytos) 

Anher 

13 

Hek-ad 

An-u  (Heliopolis) 

Ra 

14 

Khent-abd 

Zan  (Tanis) 

Hor  (Horus)    ^ 

15 

Tehflt 

Pa-Tehuti  (Hermopolis) 

Thoth 

16 

Khar 

Pa-ba-neb-ded  (Mendes) 

Ba-neb-ded 
(Osiris) 

17 

Sam-hut 

Pa-khen-en-Amen  (Dios- 
polis) 

Amen  Ra 

18 

Am-khent 

Pa-Bast  (Bubastis) 

Bast 

19 

Am-peh 

Pa-Uaz  (Buto) 

Uaz  (Buto) 

20 

Sepd 

Kesem  (Gosen,  Phakussa) 

Sepd 

A  glance  at  the  above  list  shows  that  each  nome  had 
its  own  god.  In  its  capital  stood  his  principal  temple,  and 
there  the  college  of  priests  vowed  to  the  service  of  the 
nome  god  exercised  their  functions.  The  Egyptian  priests 
bore  the  titles  of  db,  "  the  pure,"  hen  fteter,  "  servant  of 
the  god  " — the  latter  title  being  translated  by  the  Greeks 
as  "  prophet,"  though  the  official  in  question  had  nothing 
to  do  with  prediction — and  others  of  a  similar  nature. 
At  the   head   of  each  college  was  a   high   priest  with  a 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

specific  title  ;  at  Memphis  he  was  "  Chief  of  the  Artificers," 
at  Mendes  "  Director  of  the  Soldiers,"  at  Heliopolis  the 
"  Great  Seer,"  ^  at  Thebes  in  earlier  times  the  "  First 
Prophet  of  Amen,"  and  later  "  Opener  of  the  Gate  of 
Heaven."  In  the  later  period  a  high  priestess  generally 
took  rank  beside  the  chief  priest,  who  was  surrounded  by 
a  staff  of  permanent  officials,  the  number  varying  with  the 
size  and  wealth  of  the  temple.  This  staff  was  not  so 
large  as  we  might  expect  ;  at  Siut,  for  example,  it  con- 
sisted of  ten  and  at  Abydos  of  only  five  persons.  To 
these,  however,  must  be  added  many  minor  officials  of 
the  temple,  and  many  personages  of  the  city  who  per- 
formed priestly  functions  at  stated  times  and  in  addition 
to  their  other  functions.  The  priests  of  each  nome  were 
independent  and  subject  to  no  higher  jurisdiction.  If 
occasionally  the  idea  arose  of  appointing  a  high  priest 
for  all  Egypt  who,  living  at  court  and  being  under  its 
influence,  should  rule  the  priesthood  in  a  sense  friendly 
to  the  government,  the  attempt  invariably  failed,  owing 
to  the  jealous  independence  of  the  different  colleges. 
The  kings  were  obliged  to  be  content  with  appointing 
their  own  relations  or  men  devoted  to  their  interests  as 
chief  priests  of  the  more  important  shrines,  and  thus  to 
gain  an  indirect  influence  over  the  priesthood.  But  it  was 
not  only  in  regard  to  government  that  the  independence 
of  the  various  colleges  was  preserved  ;  it  maintained  itself 
also  in  religious  matters.  Each  nome  had  its  own  religion 
which  it  developed  regardless  of  neighbouring  faiths,  and 

'  This   must  be  understood   in  the  physical   sense.     The   literal 
translation  of  the  title  is  "  Great  One  of  Seeing-s." 


HENOTHEISM— FUSION    OF   DEITIES.  II 

which  in  almost  every  case  became  henotheistic  from  time 
to  time.  The  god  of  a  nome  was  within  it  held  to  be 
Ruler  of  the  Gods,  Creator  of  the  World,  Giver  of  all 
good  things,  and  it  mattered  little  to  his  adherents  that 
another  deity  played  a  precisely  similar  part  in  some 
adjacent  nome  where  their  own  god  was  relegated  to  a 
subordinate  place. 

Quarrels  between  the  nomes  could  not  fail  to  arise 
from  such  isolation  of  interests.  Some  gods  were 
enemies  of  others,  according  to  the  myths;  and  one 
deity  being  honoured  in  one  province  while  his  enemy 
was  worshipped  in  another,  their  worshippers  also  took 
sides  against  one  another.  Even  in  Roman  times  this 
state  of  antagonism  occasionally  led  to  sanguinary  con- 
flicts between  the  inhabitants  of  different  districts.  More- 
over, in  the  course  of  history,  owing  to  the  independent 
growth  of  local  religions,  divinities  once  the  same  in  cha- 
racter and  origin  took  different  shape  in  different  nomes, 
and  became  at  length  entirely  distinct ;  while  other  gods 
which  eventually  appear  identical  in  name  and  nature 
were  originally  and  radically  different.  In  historical  times 
Horus  of  Edfu  no  longer  corresponded  to  the  Horus  of 
Letopolis.  The  former  is  the  keen  sighted  god  of  the 
bright  sun,  and  the  latter  a  blind  deity  whose  manifestation 
was  in  solar  eclipse.  Hence,  in  treating  of  any  one  god 
we  cannot  indiscriminately  apply  all  references  to  him 
without  running  the  risk  of  acquiring  false  notions  ;  we 
must  carefully  examine  whether  they  originated  in  the 
same  place  and  arose  out  of  the  same  fundamental  ideas. 
Occasionally  indeed  this    isolation   was    intruded  upon. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

This  would  often  happen  on  a  small  scale  when  an  in- 
habitant of  one  nome  had  established  himself  in  another, 
bringing  with  him  his  own  gods,  to  whom  he  proceeded 
to  erect  shrines,  after  obtaining  the  necessary  official 
permission.  If  such  a  shrine  was  richly  endowed  and 
magnificent  festivals  were  solemnized  there,  it  was  only 
natural — especially  in  a  place  where  the  chief  temple  was 
poor — that  more  and  more  adherents  should  flock  to  the 
new  deity,  and  gradually  give  him  precedence  over  the 
original  god.  At  Abydos,  for  instance,  in  course  of  time, 
Anher,  god  of  the  city  and  of  the  Thinite  nome,  was 
almost  entirely  displaced  by  Osiris.  Such  events  trans- 
pired quietly  and  were  of  local  importance  only,  but 
the  religious  revolution  which  the  assumption  of  power 
by  a  new  dynasty  involved  had  far  wider  issues.  The 
new  dynasty  always  believed  that  it  owed  the  crown  to 
the  god  of  its  native  nome  ;  hence  it  considered  the 
worship  of  its  tutelary  deity  of  primary  importance,  and 
endeavoured  to  spread  the  cult  over  the  whole  kingdom. 
In  this  endeavour  their  sovereign  was  willingly  met  half- 
way by  the  people.  To  them  the  elevation  of  the  king 
over  the  other  nomarchs  implied  the  exaltation  of  his  god 
over  all  the  other  divinities,  and  to  this  god  all  henceforth 
made  their  offerings  and  addressed  their  prayers.  It  was 
to  such  considerations  and  to  royal  influence  that  the 
worship  of  Ptah  and  that  of  Amen  Ra  were  indebted  for 
their  extension.  Again,  other  gods  were  raised  to  power 
as  the  result  of  certain  tendencies  of  thought.  From  the 
Hyksos  period  onwards  the  origin  of  all  forms  of  religion 
was  sought  in  sun  worship  ;  nearly  all  the  principal  deities 


THE   SOLAR    BIAS.  1 3 

were  thenceforth  amalgamated  with  the  Sun  god,  and 
hence  arose  composite  forms  like  Amen  Ra,  Khnum 
Ra,  and  many  others  of  the  same  kind.  And  although 
the  train  of  ideas  connected  with  the  Osirian  religion — 
to  take  only  one  example — could  not  logically  be  brought 
into  harmony  with  the  new  doctrine,  yet  the  solar  bias 
which  characterized  Ancient  Egyptian  mythology  from 
the  beginning  of  the  New  Kingdom  ultimately  and  in- 
evitably turned  the  whole  scheme  of  faith  into  pantheism. 


CHAPTER     II. 

SUN    WORSHIP. 

T3  A  is  the  name  by  which  the  Sun  god  is  generally 
-*-^  mentioned  in  the  texts.  Attempts  have  repeatedly 
been  made  to  draw  from  his  name  far  reaching  conclusions 
as  to  the  nature  of  his  divinity,  and  it  has  been  con- 
jectured that  since  "  to  give  "  and  also  occasionally  "  to 
order,  to  regulate  "  are  among  the  meanings  of  the  word 
rd,  the  god  was  so  called  as  the  being  who  created, 
ordered,  and  regulated  all  things,  especially  as,  according 
to  certain  inscriptions,  he  was  older  than  the  firmament, 
and  maker  of  gods  and  men.  But  this  explanation 
is  too  far  fetched.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  name  of 
the  god  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  word  meaning 
"to  give,"  but  is  derived  from  rd,  the  oldest  and  most 
common  designation  of  the  sun,  afterwards  extended  to 
the  god  in  whose  figure  the  animating  spirit  of  the  sun 
was  supposed  to  be  embodied.  Creative  activity  was  of 
course  ascribed  to  this  being  :  the  existence  of  life  without 
the  cooperation  of  the  sun  was  inconceivable  ;  apart 
from  its  agency  all  would  have  remained  lifeless.  The 
sun,  and  light  with  it,  must  needs  have  been  formed  before 
any  creatures  could  come  into  existence ;  once  it  had 
been  personified  there  was  but  a  step  from  the  accepted 
«4 


RA.T   TAUI. 


15 


idea   of    its    prior    existence    to    the    belief  that   it   was 
the  sun  which  had  called  all  things  into  being. 

Originally  the  sun  was  considered  to  be  male ;  and  not 
until  a  comparatively  late  period  did  the  idea  occur  to  the 
Egyptians  of  resolving  it  into 
a  masculine  and  a  feminine 
being.  The  latter  received 
the  name  RA.T,  or  RA.T  TAUl, 
"  Ra.t  of  the  Two  Lands,"  a 
name  the  late  origin  of  which 
is  indicated  in  its  artificial 
formation  by  the  addition  of 
a  feminine  suffix  to  the  prim- 
itive word.^  It  was  not  easy, 
however,  to  assign  any  par- 
ticular function  to  the  goddess. 
Often  she  is  called  the  Lady 
of  Heliopolis  ;  but  she  was 
also  supposed  to  dwell  in 
other  places — e.g.  in  the  Si- 
naitic  Peninsula— and  to  be 
included  in  the  divine  triad 
of  Erment  along  with  Month 
and  Harpokrates.  Nowhere 
did  she  attain  to  any  stand- 
ing of  her  own.  Her  func- 
tions were  those  of  Isis,  and 
she  is  even  represented  as  bearing  the  cow  horns  of  that 
goddess.  But  she  is  never  represented  as  hawk  headed, 
'  This  feminine  suflfix,  which  often  forms  part  of  the  names  of 


FIG.     I. 
RA.(t)    TAUI.       (l.  D.    III.     188.) 

Great  temple  of  Rameses  II.  at  Abu 
Simbel. 


l6  SUN   WORSHIP. 

and  this  would  not  have  been  the  case  had  she  been  one 
of  the  genuine  solar  deities  of  the  olden  time. 

Sun  worship  existed  in  Egypt  from  prehistoric  times, 
and  it  held  its  place  in  popular  favour  until  the  latest 
period  of  Egyptian  history.  The  obelisks  which  stood 
at  the  entrance  of  temples  were  dedicated  to  the  sun,  as 
were  also  the  little  votive  objects  of  like  form  which  were 
placed  in  tombs,  particularly  during  the  period  of  the 
Old  Kingdom.  During  the  New  Kingdom  the  latter  were 
superseded  by  small  pyramids.  These  did  not  represent 
the  sepulchral  pyramids  of  the  Old  Kingdom  (which  were 
no  more  than  geometrically  formed  tumuli  of  masonry, 
without  any  deep  symbolical  meaning),  but  are  to  be 
considered  as  representing  the  obelisks,  the  pointed  tops 
of  which  are  of  the  same  form.^  Sometimes  these 
votive  pyramids  are  very  small,  and  then  are  commonly 
flattened  at  the  tops  and  furnished  with  a  ring  so  as 
to  be  worn  as  amulets.  A  third  kind  of  monument 
takes  a  place  midway  between  these  two  forms.^  This 
consists  of  a  pyramid  base  without  apex,  thus  producing 
the  form  of  the  so  called  "  mastabas,"  the  private  tombs  of 
the  Old  Kingdom  ;  from  the  flat  upper  surface  an  obelisk 

Egyptian  goddesses,  has  been  conjecturally  vocalized  as  if.  In  later 
times  the  pronunciation  of  the  t  was  dropped,  and  such  names  of 
goddesses  were  pronounced,  as  the  Greek  transcriptions  testify, 
Isi(s),  Athyri,  Anuki,   etc. 

1  For  an  account  and  confutation  of  the  numerous  false  hypotheses 
based  on  the  form  and  size  of  the  sepulchral  pyramids,  and 
especially  of  the  great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh,  of.  Wiedemann,  Globus, 
1893,  Ixiii.,  pp.  217,  242. 

2  See  Sethe,  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1889,  pp.  in  et  seq.  ;  Schiaparelli, 
//  Sigfiificato  Simholico  delle  ;pir amide,  Rome,  1884. 


HELIOPOLIS.  17 

rises,  generally  surmounted  by  the  solar  disk.  During 
the  Vth  Dynasty  these  were  much  in  favour,  and  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Memphis  several  kings  set  up  great 
monumental  erections  on  this  model,  with  temples  in 
connexion  with  them,  to  which  various  orders  of  priests 
were  attached.  These  edifices  were  dedicated  to  Ra,  or 
to  Ra  Harmakhis  ;  occasionally  also  Horus  and  Hathor 
were  worshipped  in  them.  As  to  their  sites,  plans,  and 
so  forth,  we  have  no  positive  data,  but  probably  there 
was  some  connexion  between  them  and  the  sepulchral 
pyramids  ;  at  least  this  is  suggested  by  the  fact  that  the 
same  priests  who  served  the  pyramids  as  "  prophets " 
occupied  also  official  positions  in  these  sanctuaries  of  Ra. 

The  place  round  which  the  solar  worship  centred  was 
An,  Hebrew  On.  It  was  also  called  by  the  Egyptians 
Pa  Rd,  "  the  house  of  Ra,"  Bethshemesh  by  the  Hebrews, 
and  by  the  Greeks  Heliopolis.  The  history  of  the  city 
in  detail  cannot  indeed  be  carried  back  very  far.  In  texts 
of  the  Old  Kingdom  it  is  named  but  seldom,  and  the 
foundation  of  the  great  temple  of  Ra,  so  zealously  adorned 
by  later  Pharaohs,  dates  only  from  the  Xllth  Dynasty 
(before  2500  B.C.),  as  is  related  in  a  poetically  embellished 
description  of  the  event  written  on  leather  and  preserved 
at  Berlin.^  This,  however,  was  not  the  first  sanctuary 
built  in  the  city  :  the  same  manuscript  mentions  that  on 
the  occasion  of  the  new  foundation  the  great  house  of  Turn 
in  Heliopolis  was  enlarged.  Of  the  temple  of  Tum  no- 
thing remains,  and  only  the  peribolus  and  a  single  obelisk 

^  Published  and  discussed  by  Stern,  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1874,  pp.  85 
et  seq. 

2 


l8  SUN   WORSHIP. 

with  the  names  of  King  Usertesen  I,,  that  stands  near 
the  httle  village  of  Matarieh,  bear  witness  to  the  Xllth 
Dynasty  foundation.  The  work  of  destruction  was  begun 
in  ancient  times.  Under  Rameses  III.  {circa  1200  B.C.)  the 
temple  was  at  the  height  of  its  power  ;  1 2,963  persons  are 
said  to  have  been  then  engaged  in  its  service.^  But,  later, 
Herodotus  can  testify  only  to  the  learning  and  wisdom  of 
its  priesthood,  and  not  to  the  splendour  of  its  buildings  ; 
and  in  Strabo's  time^  the  place  was  almost  entirely  for- 
saken, although  still  visited  frequently  by  travellers,  both 
on  account  of  the  temple  and  of  the  college  of  learning  con- 
nected with  it.  In  Arab  times  the  ruins  were  still  extant  ; 
the  fall  of  the  fellow  obelisk  to  the  one  still  standing  took 
place  only  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  a  magnificent 
statue  of  a  deity  was  destroyed  in  the  vicinity  by  Ahmed 
ibn  Tulun  (868 — 883  A.D.).  Excavations  on  the  site  have 
produced  little  or  nothing,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that 
none  have  been  carried  out  systematically  as  yet. 

The  sacred  spring  of  the  god  Ra  has  lasted  longer  than 
his  monuments.  About  730  B.C.,  when  King  Piankhi  of 
Ethiopia  arrived  at  Heliopolis  on  his  triumphal  march 
through  Egypt,  he  washed  his  face,  as  he  himself  relates,^ 
in  the  pool  of  fresh  water  in  which  Ra  was  wont  to  lave 
his  divine  countenance.  The  Arabs  still  call  it  "  The 
Spring  of  the  Sun  "  ;  and  here,  as  the  ancient  legend  tells, 
the    mother   of  our    Lord    washed   her   child's    swaddling 


'   Great  Harris  Papy^^us,  pi.  31,  1.  8. 
^  xvii.  805. 

3  Piankhi  Stela,  1.    102,  translated  by  Brugsch,    GescJi.  Aeg., 
pp.  682  et  seq.  ;  WIEDEMANN,   GescJt.  Aeg.,  pp.  564  et  seq. 


FIG.    2.—  OBELISK    OF    USERTESEN    I.    AT    MATARIEH    (HELIOrOLIS). 


PIANKHI   AT   HELIOPOLIS.  21 

clothes  after  reaching  Egypt  in  the  flight  from  Herod,  and 
from  the  water  falHng  on  the  ground  there  sprang  up 
a  balsam  shrub,  which,  according  to  Maqrizi's  account, 
grows  nowhere  else  in  the  world.  Even  to  this  day  the 
traveller  is  shown  the  sycomore  in  the  shade  of  which  the 
Holy  Family  is  said  to  have  rested,  and,  although  itself  but 
a  few  centuries  old,  it  is  the  latest  successor  of  one  which 
may  have  existed  in  the  time  of  Christ.  The  site  is  still 
held  sacred  by  Arabs  and  Copts  alike. 

The  Ancient  Egyptian  text  to  which  we  have  already 
referred  gives  an  account  of  the  ritual  observed  by  a 
Pharaoh  who  visited  Heliopolis  in  person.  After  perform- 
ing his  ablutions  Piankhi  went  in  ceremonial  procession  to 
the  sandhill  at  Heliopolis,  and  there  offered  a  great  offer- 
ing of  white  cattle,  milk,  balsam,  incense,  and  all  manner 
of  sweet  smelling  woods  before  the  god  Ra  at  his  rising. 
On  his  return  to  the  temple  of  the  Sun  he  was  extolled 
by  the  chief  of  the  temple  ;  the  temple  lector  recited  the 
formula  warding  off  the  king's  enemies  ;  the  ceremony  of 
the  "  House  of  Stars  "  (a  room  in  the  temple)  was  com- 
pleted ;  and  the  king  assumed  the  sacred  band.  He  then 
purified  himself  with  fresh  incense ;  there  were  given  unto 
him  flowers  of  the  Hat  Benben — i.e.  those  borne  by  the 
celebrant  in  this  part  of  the  temple  when  appearing  before 
the  god.  "  He  bore  the  flowers,  he  ascended  the  steps  to 
the  great  chamber  (the  Holy  of  Holies)  to  behold  Ra  in 
the  Hat  Benben,  he  the  king  himself.  There  stood  the 
prince  alone  ;  he  loosed  the  bolts,  he  opened  the  doors, 
he  beheld  his  father  Ra  in  the  sacred  Hat  Benben,  the 
Mad  or  Madet  bark  of  Ra  and  the  Sekti  bark  of  Tum. 


SUN   WORSHIP. 


Then  he  closed  the  doors,  placed  sealing  clay  upon  them, 
and  sealed  it  with  the  royal  seal.  Then  spake  he  and 
commanded  the  priests  :  '  I  have  impressed  the  seal ;  no 
man  of  the  other  kings  {i.e.  of  his  vassal  princes)  shall  enter 


^^o4^ 


FIG.    3. — MADET    BOAT.       (mAR.,     "  DENDERAH,"    IV.,    PL.    64.) 

Upper  chamber  of  temple  of  Denderah.    Roman  Period. 


into  it  (the  sanctuary).'  He  stood,  but  they  cast  themselves 
down  upon  their  bellies  before  his  majesty  and  said  :  '  May 
he  endure  and  increase  and  never  be  destroyed,  Horus  who 
loveth  Heliopolis  ! '  {i.e.  the  king  himself).  Then  Piankhi 
returned  to  the  temple  of  Tum,  and  with  him  was  brought 


THE   SOLAR    BARKS. 


23 


the  image  of  his  father  Turn  Khepera,  prince  of  Heh'opolis." 
After  this  the  king  left  the  city. 

The  chief  relics  of  the  sanctuary  visited  by  Piankhi  were 
two  barks.  These  were  for  the  use  of  the  Sun  god  in  his 
daily  course  through  the  sky  ;  for,  according  to  Egyptian 


FIG.   4. — SEKTI    BOAT.       (mAR.,    "  DENDERAH,"    IV.,    PL.    64.) 


ideas,  the  movement  of  the  heavenly  bodies  consisted  in 
a  navigation,  either  on  the  waters  which  were  supposed 
to  form  the  firmament,  or  else  on  the  celestial  Nile  which 
was  supposed  to  run  through  a  sky  of  metal — according 
as  either  idea  of  the  heavens  prevailed.     It  was  commonly 


24 


SUN   WORSHIP. 


understood  that  the  Sun  had  two  barks  at  his  disposal : 
the  Mad  or  Madet  boat  for  the  morning,  and  the  Sekti 
boat  for  the  afternoon.  But  there  was  another  theory  that 
the  number  of  the  barks  was  far  larger,  and  that  one 
was  provided  for  every  hour  of  the  day.  These  barks  were 
made  on  the  model  of  the  ordinary  Nile  boat  :  amidships 
was  a  cabin  in  which  the  god  Ra  installed  himself;  fore 
and  aft  were  his  attendant  deities  to  fight  his  foes  and 
navigate  the  boat,  the  watch  being  relieved  hourly.  Turn 
and  Khepera,  cognate  forms  of  Ra  himself,  were  generally 
represented  as  accompanying  him. 


FIG.    5 


-BARK    OF    RA.       (lEPS.,    "  TODT.,      CAP. 

Book  of  the  Dead.    Ptolemaic? 


Within  the  temple  was  also  treasured  a  divine  symbol 
in  the  form  of  a  small  obelisk,  called  benben,  probably  of 
stone,  from  which  the  whole  temple  had  received  its  name 
of  Hat  Benben,  "  House  of  the  Obelisk,"  or  rather  of  the 
"  pyramidion  of  the  obelisk,"  a  name  more  especially  em- 
ployed in  religious  and  magical  texts.  This  benben  was 
held  to  be  an  embodiment  of  Ra  himself.  The  choice  of 
an  inanimate  object  for  such  a  purpose  may  be  traced  to 
the  influence  of  Asiatic  ideas,  as  will  be  shown  later.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  in  Heliopolis  not  only  is  this  mode 
of  worship  found  even  in  the  earliest  period,  but  it  con- 
tinued throughout  the  whole  duration  of  Egyptian  history. 


RA   THE   SUN   GOD.  2$ 

This  is  the  more  remarkable  since  the  worship  of  the 
phoenix  as  a  second  embodiment  of  Ra  also  prevailed 
at  Heliopolis,  and  this  was  a  purely  Egyptian  conception. 
A  close  connexion  between  Heliopolis  and  Asia  seems  to 
have  existed  even  in  prehistoric  times,  and  the  tradition 
of  it  long  survived  :  Greek  writers  and  travellers  were 
aware  of  it,  and  erroneously  concluded  that  Heliopolis 
was  of  Arabian  foundation,^  though  as  a  matter  of  fact 
the  only  foundation  made  there  by  the  Semites  was  that 
of  a  certain  form  of  worship. 

The  fact  that  in  Heliopolis  it  was  thought  incumbent 
to  worship  two  embodiments  of  the  Sun  god  shows  that 
this  deity  was  not  considered  as  one  and  indivisible,  but 
could  be  resolved  into  separate  parts,  to  each  of  which  an 
independent  existence  might  be  ascribed.  Originally  each 
form  of  the  deity  would  have  its  own  separate  sphere  of 
activity,  but  gradually  one  encroached  upon  the  domain 
of  the  other  to  such  an  extent  that,  though  the  ideal 
significance  of  each  was  still  radically  different,  in  other 
respects  their  natures  and  functions  were  almost  identical. 
The  following  are  the  more  important  of  these  forms  :— 

Ra  himself,  whom  the  inscriptions  designate  as  god  of 
Heliopolis,  of  Xois,  of  Apollinopolis  Magna,  and  of  the 
Hermopolite  nome  in  Upper  Egypt.  He  is  almost  in- 
variably represented  as  a  hawk  headed  man  holding  in 
one  hand  the  sign  of  life,  and  in  the  other  the  symbol 
of  sovereignty,  the  kingly  sceptre  Has.  Upon  his  head  is 
the  solar  disk  in  the  coil  of  the  uraeus,  that  serpent  being 
symbolic  of  power  over  life  and  death.  It  is  the  charac- 
^  Juba,  in  Pliny,  vi.  26. 


26 


SUN   WORSHIP. 


teristic  sign  of  all  solar  deities  that  they  are  hawk  headed, 
many  being  supposed,  according  to  Egyptian  belief,  to  be- 
come incarnate  in  hawks  ;  when  any  god  is  so  represented 
his  solar  nature  may  be  confidently  assumed.  In  times 
when  it  was  sought  to  turn  the  whole  Ancient  Egyptian 
religion  into  a  solar  cult,  the  figure 
of  the  sparrow  hawk  proper  ^^.  was 
equivalent  to  the  sign  for  neter, 
"  god,"  and  was  also  its  determina- 
tive, in  the  same  way  as  the  figure  of 
the  uraeus  serpent  U^  was  employed 
with  regard  to  neter.t,  "goddess." 
We  have  no  information  as  to  how 
the  hawk  came  to  be  associated  with 
the  sun.  Bak,  the  Egyptian  name 
of  the  bird,  has  no  philological  con- 
nexion with  the  heavenly  body.  Pro- 
bably this  bird  of  prey — which  now 
hovering  high  in  air  seems  to  dis- 
appear into  the  blue  heaven  and  to 
merge  itself  in  the  sun,  and  anon 
shoots  down  suddenly  to  earth  like 
a  ray  of  light — was  regarded  as  the 
messenger  and  even  as  part  of  the  Sun 
god,  and  hence  it  was  concluded  that  he  himself  bore  the 
form  of  a  sparrow  hawk.  Even  the  Neo  Platonists  thought 
they  had  found  a  close  connexion  between  the  two  ;  Por- 
phyrius  giving  as  the  reason  for  it  that  the  hawk  is  formed 
of  blood  and  spirit  {irveviia).  We  must  needs  admit  that 
such  conclusions  are  natural  when  we  remember  that  races 


FIG.    6. 
RA.       (l.    D.    hi.    138°.) 

Stela  of  Seti  I.  at  Redesiyeh. 


HORUS.  27 

having  no  connexion  with  the  Egyptian  have  associated 
sun  and  sparrow  hawk.  Homer,  for  instance,  Od.  xv.  525, 
calls  the  hawk  the  "  swift  messenger  of  Phcebus."  In 
pursuance  of  this  train  of  thought  divine  honours  were 
accorded  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile  to  various  kinds  of 
hawks  ;  the  birds  were  kept  in  sacred  groves,  and  after 
death  their  bodies  were  embalmed. 

HORUS,  Her. — By  the  name  of  Horus  at  least  two 
entirely  distinct  deities  were  originally  denoted— Horus 
the  son  of  Isis,  and  Horus  the  sun  god.  The  attempted 
blending  of  the  two  divinities  was  a  subsequent  develop- 
ment :  so  also  was  the  likening  of  the  war  which  Horus 
the  sun  god  waged  against  the  powers  of  darkness  to  the 
prolonged  combat  of  Horus  the  son  of  Isis  with  Set  the 
murderer  of  his  father.  The  primary  significance  of  Horus 
the  sun  god,  whom  the  Greeks  identified  with  their  Apollo, 
has  nothing  in  common  with  that  of  the  son  of  Isis. 
Generally  speaking,  the  sun  god  may  be  distinguished 
from  his  namesake  by  the  possession  of  certain  cogno- 
mens varying  with  the  nomes  or  cities  in  which  he  was 
worshipped.  In  course  of  time  each  of  the  different  forms 
became  an  independent  divinity,  and  we  frequently  find 
several  such  worshipped  contemporaneously  as  distinct 
deities  in  the  later  periods  of  Egyptian  history.  Among 
these  forms  of  Horus  the  sun  god  the  following  are 
especially  important : — 

Her-ur,  "  Horus  the  Elder,"  the  Greek  Aroeris,  who 
was  particularly  worshipped  at  Letopolis  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Memphis,  his  birthplace  being  supposed  to 
be  Apollinopolis  Parva,  and  his  mother  an  Hathor.     An 


28  SUN   WORSHIP. 

extensive  temple  was  also  dedicated  to  him  at  Ombos  in 
Upper  Egypt.  He  was  represented  as  a  hawk  headed 
man,  or  simply  as  a  hawk.  It  is  characteristic  of  the 
religious  medley  of  later  times  that  he  then  appears  as- 
Her-UR-Shu,  the  son  of  Ra,  although  he  himself  and 
Shu  and  Ra  were  originally  independent  solar  deities 
representing  similar  conceptions. 

Her-MER-TI,  "  Horus  of  the  Two  Eyes,"  i.e.  sun  and 
moon,  Lord  of  Shedennu,  a  city  of  Lower  Egypt  in  the 
nome  of  Pharbaethus.  In  later  times  he  was  identified  at 
Panopolis  with  Min,  the  generative  power  of  nature,  and 
with  the  moon,  being  thus  changed  from  a  solar  to  a  lunar 
deity. 

Her-khent-An-ma,  "Horus  Lord  of  Not  Seeing,"  a 
Letopolitan  god  who  was  supposed  to  be  blind  and  to 
symbolize  solar  eclipse.^  Among  the  animals  sacred  to 
him  was  the  shrew  mouse,  which,  according  to  Plutarch,'^ 
received  divine  honours  in  Egypt  because  it  was  blind^ 
and  because  darkness  was  older  than   light. 

Her-em-KHU-TI,  the  Harmakhis  of  the  Greeks,  "  Horus 
on  the  Two  Horizons,"  i.e.  the  horizon  of  the  east  and 
the  horizon  of  the  west,  Horus  at  his  rising  and  at  his 
setting.  Sometimes  he  was  designated  simply  Her-em- 
KHU,  "  Horus  on  the  Horizon,"  and  then  represents  more 
especially  the  god  of  the  rising  sun.  He  was  easily  and 
frequently  merged  with  Ra,  and  under  these  circumstances 
he  was  entitled  "  The  Great  God,  the  Lord  of  Heaven,  Ra 

1  On  this  point  see  Renouf  in  Proceedings  of  the  Society  of 
Biblical  Archceology,  vol.  viii.,  p.  155. 
*  Sy9n;p.,  iv.  5. 


HARMAKHIS— HER   NUB. 


29 


Harmakhis,"  In  this  form  he  appears  as  god  of  Heliopolis, 
occasionally  bearing  the  additional  name  of  Tum,  and  there 
lU-S-AAS  was  accounted  his  wife.  He  played  a  prominent 
part  also  in  the  city  of  Tanis,  in  the  far  east  of  the  Delta, 
on  the  Asiatic  frontier.  And  the  Great  Sphinx  of  Gizeh/ 
a  monument  which  the  inscriptions  would  have  us  believe 
had  been  in  existence  at  the  time  of  King  Khephren 
(Khafra),  was  likewise  dedicated  to  Harmakhis. 


FIG.    7. — RAMESES 


BETWEEN    HARMAKHIS    AND   lU-S-AAS. 

Temple  of  Gerf  Hussein. 


'l.  d.  III.  178,  a.) 


Her-NUB,  "the  Golden  Horus/'  is  primarily  the  god  of 
the  morning  sun,  manifesting  himself  in  the  golden  glory 
of  the  dawn.  Hence  he  may  be  considered  as  being  in 
a  certain  sense  the  counterpart  of  the  Golden  Hathor. 
The  Golden  Hathor  had  no  connexion  with  the  Golden 
Aphrodite  of  the  Greeks,  but  was  goddess  of  the  western 

1  See  pp.  195,  197. 


30  SUN   WORSHIP. 

sky  which  received  the  dying  sun  in  the  glow  of  sunset 
and  hence  was  supposed  likewise  to  receive  the  dead  on 
their  decease.  In  the  latter  capacity  she  was  usually 
represented  as  emerging  from  the  Mountain  of  the  West. 
From  of  old  the  Pharaohs,  who  always  sought  to  pose 
as  the  Sun  on  earth,  greatly  affected  this  title  of  "  the 
Golden  Horus,"  and  their  public  appearances  are  commonly 
described  as  the  breaking  forth  of  light  by  the  use  of  the 
word  khd,  which  also  denotes  the  sunrise. 

Her-HEKENNU,  a  hawk  headed  deity,  known  in  Denderah 
as  the  husband  of  the  goddess  Bast,  and  of  whom  we_find 
it  often  stated  :  "  he  shines  in  the  sun  disk." 

Her-BEHUDTI  corresponds  to  Her-DEMA,  and  plays 
the  chief  part  in  a  solar  myth  of  which  more  will  .be 
said  anon. 

Her-ka,  "  Horus  the  Bull,"  is  the  planet  Saturn  ;  Her- 
DESHER,  "  the  Red  Horus,"  is  the  planet  Mars  ;  and 
Her-AP-SHETA,  "  Horus  the  Opener  of  that  which  is 
Secret,"  is  the  planet  Jupiter.  Hence  it  would  seem  that 
the  three  planets  were  regarded  as  emanations  of  the  sun. 
Her.t,  the  feminine  form  of  Her,  is  a  goddess  of  purely 
grammatical  origin.  Under  this  name  Hathor  was  wor- 
shipped at  Sebennytos,  being  there  accounted  the  daughter 
of  Ra  and  the  mother  of  Anher,  and  in  later  times  identified 
under  her  lioness  form  with  Tefnut  and  also  with  Nephthys, 
goddesses  with  whom  she  had  originally  nothing  but  her 
sex  in  common.  It  is  easy  to  understand  how  there  would 
be  no  natural  place  in  the  myths  for  this  product  of  priestly 
speculations,  any  more  than  for  Rat  ;  the  titles  and  attri- 
butes with  which  Hert  was  endowed,  the  story  of  her  birth 


KHEPERA— TtJM.  31 

in  Denderah,  and  the  like  were  all  transferred  from  other 
divinities. 

Khepera,  "  he  who  is  (in  process  of)  becoming,"  strictly 
the  god  of  the  rising  sun.  In  a  Turin 
papyrus  ^  it  is  said,  "  I  am  Khepera  in 
the  morning,  Ra  at  noon,  Tum  in  the 
evening."  But  this  distinction  was  not 
thoroughly  carried  out,  and  occasionally 
Khepera     may    indicate    the    sun     in      "^-  8-— khepera. 

1        T-i  ,   .  ,,  (LEPS.,  "todt.,"cap.i7.) 

general.     The  god  is  usually  represented       Book  of  the  Dead, 
as   a    man    with    a    scarabaeus    on    his  Pto'emaic? 

head  or  in  place  of  his  head,  the  creature  serving  as  an 
ideogram  both  for  the  divine  name  and  for  the  word  de- 
noting the  god's  chief  attribute,  viz.  kheper,  "  to  become." 

Tum,  Atum,  the  Tomos  of  the  Greeks,  is  properly  the 
evening  sun,  in  contradistinction  to  Khepera.  He  became 
a  chief  object  of  worship  at  Heliopolis  as  Lord  of  the 
World  and  the  great  Creator.  In  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
he  is  called  "Creator  of  heaven,  maker  of  beings,  pro- 
creator  of  all  that  is  ;  who  gave  birth  to  the  gods,  self- 
created,  Lord  of  Life,  he  who  grants  new  strength  to  the 
gods."  He  himself  came  forth  from  Nu,  the  primeval 
waters,  and  his  worship  was  intimately  connected  with  the 
Egyptian  doctrine  of  immortality.  But  as  regards  this 
life  also  he  appears  as  a  beneficent  being  :  from  before  him 
went  the  north  wind  bringing  cool  airs  to  the  people  of 
the  land  during  the  hot  Egyptian  summer,  and  "  to  breathe 
its  sweet  breath "  was  reckoned  one  of  the  passionate 
desires  of  their  dead.  Besides  Heliopolis,  another  centre 
1  Cf.p.5;. 


32  SUN    WORSHIP. 

of  the  worship  of  Turn  was  Pa  Tiun,  "  the  House  of  Turn," 
the  Pithom  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  ruins  of  which  were 
discovered  by  M.  Naville  in  1883,  at  Tell  el  Maskhutah, 
east  of  the  Delta.^  Turn  was  generally  represented  as  a 
man  wearing  the  crowns  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  and 
when  associated  with  other  solar  deities  he  is  usually 
placed  after  Ra  Harmakhis,  but  preceding  Khepera.^ 
Originally  he  was  not  accompanied  by  any  divine  consort ; 
it  is  only  in  one  of  the  later  texts,  from  Denderah,  that  we 
find  mention  of  the  goddess  TCm.T,  the  feminine  of  Tum. 
The  texts  assert  that  she  was  worshipped  at  Bubastis. 

Shu,  called  Sos,  Sosos,  Sosis,  by  the  Greeks,  is  the 
first-born  son  of  Ra  and  Hathor,^  and  the  twin  brother 
of  the  lioness  headed  goddess  Tefnut.  He  stands  third 
in  the  divine  dynasties  both  of  Thebes  and  of  Memphis.* 
A  text  from  the  tombs  of  the  kings  at  Thebes,  speaking 

•  The  Store  City  of  Pithom,  Naville,  First  Memoir  of  Egypt 
Exploration  Fund,  London,  1885. 

-  Cf.  illustration  on  p.  24,  and  for  Turn  see  illustration  on  p.  156. 

^  According  to  a  remarkable  cosmogonical  myth,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  creation,  after  heaven  and  earth  were  uplifted  from  out  the 
primeval  waters,  Ra  produced  his  children  Shu  and  Tefniit  of  his 
own  body  alone,  without  the  cooperation  of  any  goddess.  From  Shii 
and  Tefnut  were  born  Seb  and  Nut,  and  from  these  Osiris,  Her- 
khent-an-ma  (who  here  appears  in  the  place  of  Aroeris),  Set,  Isis, 
and  Nephthys.  This  account  is  most  completely  preserved  in  the 
copy  of  a  papyrus  dating  B.C.  306—305  {Nesi  Anisic,  Budge, 
Archceologia,  lii.,  Col.  26  et  seg. ;  Col.  28  et  seq.),  but  its  main 
point  is  alluded  to  in  texts  of  the  Old  Kingdom  (Pyr.  Pepi  I., 
11.  465  ^/ .r^^.  =  Merenrd,  11.  528  et  seg. ;  Pepi  II.,  1.  663),  and  of  the 
beginning  of  the  New  Kingdom  (Mariette,  Abydos,  i.,  p.  51, 
pi.  47(5  ;  Naville,  Todtenbuch,  ii.,  p.  39.  Cf.  also  Ibid.,  Turin  text, 
chap,  xvii.,  1.  9  ;  Brugsch,  Thesaurus,  p.  634,  11.  25-6  (time  of 
Darius),  Diet.   Geog.,  p.  1387  (Ptolemaic  period). 

^  For  an  account  of  the  divine  dynasties,  see  p.  107. 


SHU. 


33 


of  him  in  his  composite  form  of  Khunsu-nefer-hetep- 
Shu,  says :  "  He  has  divided  the  heaven  from  the 
earth  ;  he  has  uplifted  the  heaven  in  eternity  above  the 
earth."  Other  texts  ascribe  to  him  the  uplifting  of  the 
primeval  waters  (Nu),  the  pillars  of  heaven,  and  the  like. 
He  is  represented  as  a  man  wearing  a  feather  on  his  head, 
but  frequently  also  as  a  lion  when 
portrayed  along  with  Tefnut.  Among 
the  centres  of  his  worship  were  the 
island  of  Biggeh  near  Philae,  Lato- 
polis,  Denderah,  and  Memphis.  The 
radical  meaning  of  his  name  can 
scarcely  be  other  than  "  the  Uplifter," 
corresponding  to  the  root  shfi,  "  to 
uplift,  to  uplift  oneself,"  and  expresses 
the  belief  that  he  was  the  supporter 
of  the  heavens,  or  the  divinity  who 
had  once  uplifted  them  and  thus  sepa- 
rated them  from  the  earth.  In  later 
texts  he  becomes  the  representative 
of  the  glowing  heat  of  the  sun,  or 
the  hot  wind.  This  is  a  misplaced 
identification,  doubtless  brought  about 
by  the  accidental  assonance  of  the 
above-mentioned  root  sJifi^  with  the 
roots  signifying  "  to  be  hot,  to  be  parched  up,"  and  "  wind." 
In  the  Book  of  the  Dead  Tefnut,  the  divine  consort  of 
Shu,  is  classed  together  with  him  and  with  Tum  as  a  ruler 
of  Heliopolis.  In  Philae  she  was  designated  the  daughter 
of  Ra,  in  Nubia  she  was  considered  the  mother  of  Thoth, 

3 


FIG.    9. 
SHU.      (l.  D.  III.  124,  rt.) 

Karnak,    Hypostyle    Hall^ 
Rameses  I. 


34 


SUN   WORSHIP. 


and  in  Elephantine  she  was  identified  with  ISIS  SOTHIS  ; 
later  texts  transfer  both  Shu  and  Tefnut  to  the  zodiac 
as  the  Twins.  It  is  clear  that  the  goddess  was  very 
differently  apprehended    in  the    different    localities  which 


FIG.    lO. — TEFNUT.       (l,    D.    III.    l82,    C.} 

Temple  of  Rameses  II.  at  Wady  Sebuah. 

were  centres  of  her  cult.  To  these,  besides  the  above, 
belong  Memphis,  Lycopolis  in  Lower  Egypt,  Denderah, 
Eileithyia,  etc.  She  is  generally  represented  as  lioness 
headed  and  wearing  the  sun  disk,  more  rarely  as  human 
headed    or    simply    as    a    lioness.      In    origin    she    was 


THE  Aten.  35 

undoubtedly  a  solar  deity  or  goddess  of  the  sky,  but 
ultimately  she  became  as  vague  and  shadowy  a  personality 
as  most  of  the  Egyptian  goddesses. 

Aten   primarily  denotes  the  solar  disk.     There  is   no 
ground  other  than  a  certain  assonance  for  the  comparison 
of  the  word  Aten  either  with  the  Semitic  Adonai  or  with 
Adonis,  the  meaning  of  each  of  these  names  being  radically 
distinct  from  that  of  Aten.     Generally  speaking,  Aten  is 
named  only  in  connexion  with  Ra,  who  is  then  called  "  Ra 
in  his  Aten  "  and  the  like  ;  yet  occasionally,  though  rarely, 
worship  seems  to  have  been  accorded  to  the  Aten  itself, 
even  down  to  a  comparatively  late   epoch.     Such    a  cult 
apparently  prevailed  for  some  time  in  Helicpolis,  where 
stood  an  Aten  temple  to  which  structural  additions  were 
made  by  kings  of  the   XVIIIth  and    XlXth  Dynasties. 
During  one  short  period  of  Egyptian  history  the  worship 
of  the  Aten  became  the  religion  of  the  state.     This  took 
place  under  King    Amenophis    IV.  (about    1450   B.C.),    a 
monarch  distinguished  from  other  Egyptians  by  striking 
bodily  peculiarities— the  sharp  advancing  chin,  the  dispro- 
portionate length  of  limb,  and  the  rolls  of  fat  about  the 
waist.     The  fact  that  his  contemporaries   are  pictured  in 
like  fashion  is  no  proof  that  they  resembled  him,  but  is 
due  to   the  Egyptian   artistic   convention  of  representing 
the  men  of  any  period  after   the    model  of  the  reigning 
Pharaoh  and  as  endowed  v/ith  his  characteristic  features. 
Attempts  have  repeatedly  been  made  to  prove  an  Asiatic 
descent  for   this    king,  and  thus   to   explain   his   idiosyn- 
crasies,  but   no    evidence    of   any    weight    has    ever    yet 
been  advanced    in    favour   of  the   theory.     On    the  other 


36  SUN   WORSHIP. 

hand,  many  things  in  this  royal  Reformation  rather 
indicate  a  deep  seated  working  of  Libyan  influences, 
although  no  proof  is  forthcoming  that  there  was  any 
Libyan  blood  in  the  king's  veins.  So  far  as  may  be 
gathered  from  the  inscriptions,  his  predecessor,  Amen- 
ophis  IIL,  was  an  adherent  of  the  old  Egyptian  customs 
and  cult,  and  the  temples  raised  by  him  were  chiefly 
in  honour  of  Amen  Ra  of  Thebes.  At  his  death  the 
old  conditions  remained,  for  a  time,  unchanged  ;  the 
new  king  also  bore  a  name  compounded  with  that  of 
Amen,  and  in  the  earliest  of  his  monuments  his  likeness 
still  resembles  that  of  his  predecessor.  But  about  the 
fourth  year  of  his  reign  his  views  changed  ;  he  assumed 
a  new  name,  KhiL-en-dten,  "  Glory  of  the  Aten,"  and 
resolved  to  introduce  the  cult  of  the  Aten  throughout 
Egypt.  The  worship  of  the  Aten  was  to  be  henotheistic, 
and,  henceforth,  of  the  other  gods,  only  solar  deities  were 
to  be  acknowledged  whose  nature  easily  allowed  of  their 
being  merged  in  the  Aten.  In  this  sense,  that  is,  as  parts 
of  the  one  godhead;  Horus,  Ra,  Tum,  and  also  Amcn- 
ophis  III.  under  his  prenomen  of  Rd-neb-viad,  "  Ra,  the 
Lord  of  Truth,"  appear  in  the  inscriptions  of  this  time. 
The  change  would  seem  to  have  been  somewhat  sudden. 
There  is  still  preserved  in  Thebes  a  tomb  begun  in  the 
first  years  of  the  king's  reign,  one  part  of  it  representing 
him  as  a  follower  of  Amen,  while  another  makes  mention 
of  the  Aten,  and  the  unfinished  sepulchral  chamber  bears 
reference  to  the  third  stage  in  the  evolution  of  this  religious 
reformation.^  Thus  it  appears  that  the  king  was  desirous 
>  Cf.  Wiedemann,  Aeg.  Gesch.^  p.  397,  Suppl.  p.  46. 


FIG.    II. — KING    KHUENATEN    AND    HIS    FAMILY    DISPENSING    REWARDS    FROM    A    BALCONY: 
THE    ATEN    EXTENDING    ITS    RAYS    OVER    THEM.       (l.    D.    III.     IO3.) 

Tomb  of  Ai,  Tell  el  Amarna. 


TELL   EL   AMARNA.  39 

at  first  of  following  the  example  of  his  predecessors,  and 
took  up  his  residence  in  Thebes,  where  he  intended  to 
raise  a  great  temple  to  Ra  Harmakhis  Aten,  a  Benben — 
that  is  to  say,  an  obelisk  with  its  appropriate  sacred 
buildings.  But  the  opposition  of  the  Theban  priesthood 
prevailed  ;  the  king  forsook  the  city,  accompanied  by  all 
his  court,  and  on  the  site  of  Tell  el  Amarna  in  Middle 
Egypt  he  founded  a  new  capital  wholly  dedicated  to  the 
worship  of  the  Sun.  Thither  were  carried  the  national 
archives,  and  it  is  from  among  these  that  we  have 
recovered  the  famous  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  the  Tell  el 
Amarna  tablets.  There  also  are  the  tombs  of  the  king's 
followers,  the  inscriptions  and  reliefs  of  which,  together 
with  the  ruins  of  the  temple  and  palaces,^  have  furnished 
all  the  scanty  data  which  we  possess  concerning  the 
worship  of  the  Aten. 

The  god  was  always  represented  under  the  form  of  the 
solar  disk,  with  rays  downspread  towards  earth  and 
severally  terminating  in  hands.  These  hands  are  often 
depicted  as  presenting  to  the  king,  or  shedding  abroad 
upon  the  world,  the  symbols  of  life,  power,  or  other 
blessings.  The  Aten  is  never  represented  as  anthro- 
pomorphic. In  this  as  in  other  Egyptian  cults  religious 
worship  chiefly  consisted  in  solemn  processions,  in  which 
the  king  and  his  family  took  part,  and  the  singing  in  whole 
or  part  of  a  hymn,  which  is  in  this  case  remarkable  for 
the  beauty  of  its  style.  One  of  the  most  characteristic 
and  poetical  versions  is  preserved   in  the  tomb   of  A'l,  a 

•   See  chiefly  Petrie,  Tell  el  Amarjia,  London,  1894. 


40  SUN   WORSHIP. 

very  exalted  official  of  the  time,  at  El  Amarna.^     With  a 
few  unimportant  omissions  the  hymn  runs  as  follows  : — 

HYMN   TO   THE   ATEN. 

Beauteous  is  thy  resplendent  appearing  on  the  horizon  of  heaven, 

O  Aten,  who  livest  and  art  the  beginning  of  life ! 

When  thou   risest   on   the   horizon   of  the   east   thou  fiUest   ever}' 

land  with  thy  beauties ; 
Fair  shining  art  thou,  great  and  radiant,  high  above  the  earth, 
Thy  beams  encompass  the   lands  to  the  measure  of  all  that  thou 

hast  made  ; 
Thou  art  the  sun,  thou  bringest  what   is   needful  to   them  by  thy 

love  ; 
Thou  stretchest  out  thy  beams  to  the  earth. 
When  thou  art  above  [the  earth]  day  follows  thy  steps  ; 
When  thou  settest   on   the  western  horizon   then  is   the   earth   in 

darkness  like  unto  one  that  is  dead ; 
They  (men)   repose   in   their  dwellings,   their  heads   are   covered, 

none  seeing  his  fellow, 
They  are  robbed  of  all  the  things  beneath   their  heads  and  they 

know  it  not ; 
Ever}'  lion  cometh  forth  out  of  his  cave,  all  snakes  bite ; 
Night  darkens  (?),  earth  becomes  silent,  their  maker  hath  set  on 

his  horizon. 
Light  is  the   earth  when  thou  risest  on  the   horizon   and    shinest 

as  Aten  by  day  ;  darkness  flees  ; 
Thou  sendest  forth  thy  rays  and  the  world  is  full  of  joy  day  by 

day. 
They  (men)  awake,  standing  on  their  feet ; 
They  purify  their  limbs,  they  take  their  garments 
And    uplift  their  hands   in   adoration,    because   thou   illuminatest 

the  whole  earth.     They  perform  their  labours. 
All  cattle  rest  in   their  pastures,  the  trees   and   the  plants  grow 

green ; 


'  Published  by  Bouriant  in  the  Metnotres  de  la  Mission  au 
Caire,  i.,  pp.  2  et  seq.  ;  also  with  translation  and  commentary  by 
J.  H.  Breasted,  De  Hyi7inis  iti  Solcm  sub  rege  Amenophide  IV. 
conceptis,  Berlin,  1894. 


HYMN    TO   THE   ATEN.  4 1 

The  birds  fly  out  of  their  nests,  their  outspread  wings  praise  thee. 
All  flocks  leap  on  their  feet,  birds  and  all  fowl  live ;  thou  risest 

for  them. 
Barks  go  up  and  down   stream,  thy  road  (the  Nile)  is  opened  at 

thy  rising ; 
The  fish  in  the  river  rise   to   the   surface  towards  thy  face,  and 

thy  rays  penetrate  the  great  waters  ; 
They  cause  women  to  be  fruitful  and  men  to  beget. 
They  quicken  the  child  within  the  body  of  its  mother. 
Thou  soothest  it  that  it  cry  not, 
Thou  dost  nourish  it  within  the  body  of  its  mother, 
Thou  givest  breath  to  give  life  to  all  its  functions. 
It  Cometh  forth  from  the  body  of  its   mother  ...   on  the  day  of 

its  birth  ; 
Thou  openest  its  mouth  that  it  may  speak. 
The  chick  is  in  its  egg,  cheeping  within  its  shell. 
Thou  givest  it  breath  therein  that  it  may  live  ; 
Thou  makest  it  complete  (fully  developed)  that  it  may  break  out 

of  the  egg ; 
It  Cometh  forth  from  the  egg  to  cheep,  to  be  made  complete ; 
It  runneth  on  its  feet  when  it  cometh  forth  [from  the  egg]. 


Thou  createdst  the   earth  according  to  thy  will  when   thou  wast 

alone  : 
Men,  herds,  all  flocks, 

All  that  is  upon  earth  and  goeth  upon  feet, 
All  that  is  on  high  and  flieth  with  wings, 
The  lands  of  Syria,  of  Kush,  and  of  Egypt ; 
Thou  settest  each  in  its  right  place ; 

Thou  providest  each  with  that  which  pertaineth  to  it.  .  .  . 
Thou  measurest  (?)  to  them  the  duration  of  their  lives, 
Their    tongues   are    loosened  that   they    speak,    their    forms    are 

according  to  the  complexions  of  their  skins  : 
Ordaining  them,  thou  hast  ordained  the  inhabitants  of  the  lands. 

Thou  makest  the  Nile  in  the  Underworld  (Duat),  thou  conductest 

it  hither  at  thy  pleasure, 
That  it  may  give  life  to  men  whom  thou  hast   made  for  thyself, 

Lord  of  All ! 
Thou  givest  the  Nile  in  heaven  that  it  descendeth  to  them 


42  SUN    WORSHIP. 

It   causeth    its  waters   to   rise    upon  the   rocks   like    the   sea ;    it 

watereth  their  fields  in  their  districts. 
So  are  thy  methods  accomplished,  O  Lord  of  Eternity  !  thou  who 

art  thyself  the  celestial  Nile  ; 
Thou  art  the  King  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  lands. 
And  of  the  cattle  going  upon  their  feet  in   every  land,  which  go 

upon  feet. 
The  Nile  cometh  out  of  the  Underworld  to  Egypt. 

Thy  [rays]  nourish  every  field,  thou  risest  and  they  live  for  thee. 
Thou  makest  the   seasons   of  the  year  that  they  may  bring   into 

existence  all  that  thou  hast  made  : 
The  winter  to  refresh  them,  the  heat  [to  warm  them]. 
Thou  createdst  the  heaven  which  is  outspread  that  thou  mightest 

rise  in  it, 
That  thou  mightest  see  all  which  thou  didst  create. 

Thou  art  the  Only  One,  when  thou  risest  in  thy  form  as  the  living 
Aten,  splendid,  radiant,  fair-shining. 

Thou  createdst  [the  forms]  of  the  beings  who  are  in  thee. 

Thou  art  the  Only  One  [in  respect  of]  cities,  fields,  roads,  water- 
ways [of  the  Nile]. 

All  behold  thee  in  their  midst,  for  thou  art  the  Aten  of  day 
above  the  earth.  .  .  . 

At  thy  rising  all  live  :  at  thy  setting  they  die  by  thee ; 

But  the  duration  of  thy  life  is  the  life  that  is  in  thee. 

Eyes  shine  brightly  until  thou  settest ;  ceaseth  all  labour  when 
thou  settest  in  the  \yest.  .  .  . 

Thou  ordainest  since  thou  createdst  the  earth,  and  raisedst  them 
up  {i.e.  its  inhabitants). 

For  thy  son  who  came  forth  from  thy  body,  the  King  of  Upper 
and  Lower  Egypt, 

Who  liveth  by  truth,  the  lord  of  the  two  lands,  Khuenaten  ; 

And  the  great  royal  wife,  whom  he  loveth. 

The  lady  of  the  two  lands,  Nefer-aiti-Nefer-neferu. 

As  king  of  the  world,  the  Aten  was  even  invested  with 
a  cartouche,  and  is  styled  in  the  inscription  "  Ra  Har- 
makhis,  who  rejoiceth  on  the  horizon  in  his  name  of  Shu, 
who    is    in    the    Aten "  ;    and    the   expressions    "  Lord    of 


PERMANENT   EFFECTS   OF   ATEN    HERESY.  43 

heaven,"  "  Lord  of  earth,"  "  He  who  giveth  life  for 
ever,"  "  He  who  illuminateth  the  earth,"  "  He  who  reigneth 
in  Truth,"  frequently  appear  among  his  titles. 

Khuenaten  seems  to  have  tried  to  carry  out  his  reform 
at  first  in  a  friendly  spirit ;  the  opposition  which  he 
encountered  turned  him  into  a  fanatic.  The  name  of 
Amen,  in  whom  he  recognized  the  chief  rival  of  the  Aten, 
was  erased  from  the  monuments  and  even  in  the  tombs  ; 
it  was  likewise  sought  out  on  smaller  objects  such  as 
funerary  stelae,  and  diligently  effaced  even  when  occurring 
in  proper  names.  In  spite  of  these  violent  measures  the 
king  did  not  succeed  in  attaining  his  end.  His  faith, 
though  held  by  one  or  two  of  his  immediate  successors, 
was  subsequently  allowed  to  drop,  and  Aten  worship  was 
persecuted  in  its  turn.  The  capital  of  the  Sun  king  was 
abandoned,  never  again  to  be  inhabited  ;  the  temples  of 
the  Aten  were  destroyed  ;  the  names  of  god  and  king 
alike  were  consistently  effaced,  and  any  mention  of  this 
particular  form  of  solar  deity  was  thereafter  extremely 
rare.  Heliopolis  seems  to  have  been  the  one  spot  in 
which  an  Aten  sanctuary  survived  ;  throughout  the  rest  of 
the  land  the  other  solar  gods  again  represented  the  Sun. 
But  henceforth,  even  as  it  had  been  from  the  beginning 
of  the  New  Kingdom  up  to  the  time  of  Khuenaten,  the 
old  solar  deities  seldom  appeared  singl)^  and  in  their  simple 
forms  :  they  were  generally  fused  with  others,  and  became 
Amen  Ra,  Khnum  Ra,  etc.  Of  the  more  important  gods 
Ptah  was  almost  the  only  one  to  escape  the  common  lot 
of  fusion  with  the  Sun,  and  this  simply  because  he  was 
already  practically  merged  in  Osiris,  god  and  ruler  of  the 


44  SUN   WORSHIP. 

realm  of  the  dead,  who  stood  in  a  certain  contrast  to  Ra, 
god  of  the  world  of  the  living. 

The  cult  of  the  Sun  god  in  no  way  differed  from  that 
of  the  other  deities.  Food  and  drink  were  offered  to  him  ; 
vegetable  offerings  and  animal  sacrifices  were  alike  pre- 
sented. The  assertion  that  blood  and  wine  were  not 
acceptable  to  him  is  based  on  error.  In  one  thing  only 
can  the  rites  of  his  worship  be  said  to  differ  from  those  of 
the  other  gods  :  more  hymns  were  sung  to  Ra  and  longer 
prayers  were  addressed  to  him  than  to  any  other  deity. 
In  the  nature  of  things  it  was  easier  to  extol  and  set  forth 
the  beneficent  might  of  an  activity  so  obvious  to  all  as  that 
of  a  deified  power  of  nature,  than  to  do  the  like  by  deities 
more  ethical,  who  could  not  lay  claim  to  such  tangible 
results  of  their  energy.  Hence  it  is  that  poetical  works 
dedicated  to  Ra  and  to  his  equivalents  Harmakhis,  Khepera, 
Tum,  etc.,  are  found  in  abundance  on  both  stone  and  papy- 
rus, dating  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  the  rule  of  the 
Roman  emperors.  Especially  numerous  are  the  hymns  from 
funerary  texts  which 'repeat  with  wearisome  iteration  the 
,  same  reflexions  on  the  creative  and  gladdening  power  of 
the  sun  and  the  blessings  hoped  for  from  it  by  the  deceased. 
A  good  illustration  is  afforded  by  the  following,  which  is 
preserved  in  many  slightly  varied  forms  :  it  is  here  trans- 
lated from  Chapter  XV.  in  the  Turin  copy  of  the  Book  of 
the  Dead. 

"  Speech  of  the  Osiris  N.  (name  of  the  deceased)  :  '  Hail 
to  Ra,  Lord  of  Rays,  who  shineth  above  the  Osiris  N.  ! 
He  extolleth  thee  in  the  morning,  he  doeth  homage  to 
thee  at  evening  ;  his  soul  goeth  forth  to  thee  in  heaven, 


BOOK  OF  THE  DEAD,  CHAPTER  XV.        45 

journeying  in  the  Madet  bark,  arriving  in  the  Sekti  bark, 
it  entereth  among  the  never  resting  stars  in  heaven.' 

"  The  Osiris  N.  saith,  praising  the  Lord  of  Eternity : 
*  Hail  to  thee,  Ra  Harmakhis,  Khepera  who  art  self-begotten ! 
Twice  beautiful !  When  thou  ascendest  on  the  horizon, 
Egypt  is  enlightened  by  thy  rays.  All  the  gods  rejoice 
when  they  behold  the  King  of  Heaven.  The  uraeus  is  erect 
upon  thy  head,  and  the  crown  of  the  South  and  the  crown 
of  the  North  are  upright  upon  thy  forehead  ;  they  have 
prepared  a  seat  for  themselves  on  thy  brow.  Hail  to  the 
beneficent  one  who  is  at  the  prow  of  the  bark,^  because 
he  destroyeth  for  thee  all  thine  enemies  who  tarry  in  Duat 
(the  Underworld),  he  goeth  forth  defending  thy  majesty 
that  he  may  see  thy  beauteous  form, 

"  '  I  come  unto  thee,  I  am  with  thee  to  see  thy  disk  {aten) 
every  day.  Let  me  not  be  imprisoned,  let  me  not  be 
repulsed,  for  I  renew  my  limbs  at  the  sight  of  thy  beauty, 
as  do  all  who  praise  thee,  because  I  am  one  of  these  thy 
devoted  ones  upon  earth.  I  reach  the  Land  of  Eternity, 
I  unite  myself  with  the  Land  of  Everlasting,  with  thee. 
Behold  !  there  shineth  upon  me  Ra  with  all  the  gods  ! ' 

"  The  Osiris  N.  saith  :  '  Hail  to  thee  when  thou  ascendest 
by  day  on  the  horizon  !  Thou  traversest  the  heavens  in 
peace  to  cause  trueness  of  voice.-  All  men  rejoice  at  sight 
of  thy  coming,  extolling  thee  (?)  with  the  hand.  Every 
morning  thou  causest  growth  and  movement  beneath  thy 

'  Shu  is  here  meant ;  he  is  often  represented  as  standing  in  the 
prow  of  the  solar  bark,  armed  with  a  lance  and  ready  to  strike  the 
foes  of  the  Sun  god. 

-  Mad  kher.  The  meaning  of  this  expression  will  be  more  fully- 
considered  later. 


46 


SUN   WORSHIP. 


majesty.  Thy  rays  are  upon  men.  As  none  may  tell  the 
splendour  of  dscvi  (an  alloy  of  silver  and  gold),  so  cannot 
thy  splendour  be  told.  The  lands  of  the  gods  see  all  the 
colours  of  Punt  when  thou  dispersest  the  darkness  which  is 
over  them.  Thou  alone  art  the  creator  when  thou  createst 
thine  own  forms  there  on  Nu  (the  primeval  waters). 

"  '  May  I  advance  as  thou  advancest.  May  I,  even  as  thy 
majesty,  O  Ra,  find  no  end.  There  is  no  prince  so  great 
that  he  passeth  through  endless  water  in  one  short  moment. 


fig.  12.  —  sun  god  uplifting  the  disk:  cynocephali  adoring, 
(leps.,  "todt.,"  cap.  i6.) 
Book  of  the  Dead.    Ptolemaic  ? 

Thou  doest  it.  Thou  settest,  thou  completest  the  hours- 
otherwise  said:^  In  like  manner  hast  thou  measured  out 
day  and  night,  thou  completest  them  as  thou  hast  ordained. 
—As  the  sun  (Ra)  thou  enlightenest  the  earth  with  thy 
arms  when  thou  risest  on  the  horizon  !  '  (This  refers  to 
the  representations  of  the  Sun  god  as  a  man  uplifting  the 
sun  disk  on  high  with  both  arms.) 

"  The  Osiris  N.  saith  as  he  adorcth  thee  in  the  morning 

'  This  phrase  introduces  an  alternative  formula. 


BOOK  OF  THE  DEAD,  CHAPTER  XV.        47 

when  thou  shinest ;  he  speaketh  praises  unto  thee  at  thy 
rising  :  '  Thou  who  exaltest  thy  forms  shining — otherwise 
said  :  Great  in  this  thy  beauty ! — Thou  beatest  out  and 
fashionest  thy  Hmbs  (as  a  goldsmith).  Thou  bringest 
forth  thyself  without  birth  ;  on  the  horizon  thou  ascendest 
on  the  high  heaven.  Let  me  attain  unto  the  high  heaven 
of  eternity,  unto  the  places  of  those  who  extol  thee.  I 
unite  myself  with  the  venerable,  perfect,  luminous  spirits  of 
the  Underworld  ;  I  go  forth  with  them  to  see  thy  beauties 
at  thy  going  forth  at  evening  when  thou  traversest  thy 
mother  Nut  (the  goddess  of  heaven)  ;  and  when  thou 
turnest  thy  face  to  the  West,  my  arms  are  uplifted  in 
adoration  of  thy  setting  in  the  Land  of  Life  (the  Under- 
world). Yea,  thou  didst  create  eternity  ;  thou  art  extolled 
at  thy  setting  in  Nu  (the  primeval  waters).  Thou  hast 
established  thyself  in  my  heart  without  ceasing.  Thou 
rejuvenatest  {iietej-)  thyself  more  than  all  the  gods  [neterfi]! 
"  The  Osiris  N.  saith  :  '  Hail  to  thee  when  thou  risest 
in  the  primeval  waters  enlightening  the  earth  on  the  day 
of  thy  birth,  when  thy  mother  brought  thee  forth  upon 
her  hands.  Thou  art  radiant,  thou  rejuvenatest  thyself 
Thou  shinest  as  the  Great  One  of  Sunrise  in  the  primeval 
waters.  The  dwellers  thereby  deck  themselves  as  they 
hasten  towards  thee ;  festivals  are  solemnized  in  thine 
honour  by  the  nomes,  by  all  cities  and  temples  which  are 
illumined  by  thy  beauties.  Gifts  are  offered  unto  thee  in 
abundance  and  excess.  Valiant  one !  Exalted  form  of 
the  exalted  forms,  who  protectest  all  thy  abodes  against 
Evil !  Great  one  of  glory  in  the  Sekti  bark,  great  one  of 
that  which  is    desired  in  the    Madet  bark  !     Thou   givest 


48  SUN   WORSHIP. 

splendour  unto  the  Osiris  N.  in  the  Underworld;  thou 
grantest  him  to  tarry  in  the  West  as  lord  over  Wrong, 
protected  against  Evil.  Place  him  among  the  venerable 
ones  who  have  devoted  themselves  unto  thee ;  let  him 
unite  himself  with  the  souls  iba.fi)  in  the  Underworld  ; 
after  a  joyful  journey  may  he  roam  in  the  fields  of  Aalu.' 

"  The  Osiris  N.  saith  :  '  I  go  forth  unto  the  heaven,  I 
traverse  the  iron  of  the  sky,  my  body  is  in  the  midst  of 
the  stars.  Salutations  are  made  unto  me  in  the  bark, 
I  am  invoked  in  the  Madet  bark  ;  I  behold  Ra  within  his 
sanctuary  when  I  pray  daily  unto  his  solar  disk  {dteii). 
I  see  the  Phagros  fish  when  it  riseth  on  the  stream  and 
emergeth  from  the  green  surface ;  I  see  the  turtle  and  its 
particles  (?).  If  any  wicked  person  appeareth  he  falleth  to 
the  ground  before  the  proclamation  of  Ra  ;  I  hack  him  in 
pieces,  cutting  along  his  backbone.  I  open  unto  thee  thy 
path,  O  Ra,  when  there  is  a  favourable  wind  ;  the  Sekti 
boat  reduceth  her  speed  ;  the  crew  of  Ra  rejoice  when  they 
behold  him,  the  Lord  of  Life,  whose  heart  is  refreshed,  for 
all  his  enemies  are  overthrown.  Behold  !  I  see  Horus  at 
the  helm  (?),  and  Thoth  with  Truth  upon  his  hands.  All 
the  gods  rejoice  to  see  him  who  cometh  in  peace.  The 
hearts  of  the  glorified  ones  ikJifi)  are  made  luminous 
{kJifi)  ;  the  Osiris  N.  is  with  them  in  the  West,  his  heart 
is  refreshed.' 

"  Saith  the  Osiris  N.  :— 

" '  Hail  to  thee !  thou  who  comest  as  Tum,  thou  who  wast 
when  thou  createdst  the  Ennead  of  the  gods. 

Hail  to  thee !  thou  who  comest  as  spirit  {ba)  of  the 
spirits  ruling  in  the  West. 


BOOK  OF  THE  DEAD,  CHAPTER  XV.        49 

Hail  to  thee !  chief  of  the  gods,  who  illuminatest  the 
Duat  with  thy  beauties. 

Hail  to  thee!  thou  who  comest  as  glorified  one  {kMi), 
journeying  in  thy  solar  disk  {dten). 

Hail  to  thee!  thou  who  art  greater  than  all  the  gods, 
who  shinest  in  heaven,  who  rulest  in  Duat. 

Thou  givest  sweet  breath  of  the  north  wind  to  the 
Osiris  N. 

Hail  to  thee!  thou  who  openest  up  Duat,  thou  who 
showest  all  doors. 

Hail  to  thee  in  the  midst  of  the  gods  !  thou  who  weighest 
words  in  the  Underworld. 

Hail  to  thee  in  thy  cradle  !  thou  who  creating  createst 
Duat  by  thy  glory. 

Hail  to  the  great  and  mighty  One  !  thine  enemies  are 
flung  down  in  the  hall  of  execution. 

Hail  to  thee  who  destroyest  thy  foes  and  annihilatest 
the  Apep  serpent  (darkness). 

Thou  givest  sweet  breath  of  the  north  wind  to  the 
Osiris  N. 

"  '  Aroeris  openeth  the  door  (of  the  Underworld),  he  the 
great  opener  of  the  great  Land  of  Rest  in  the  mountain 
of  the  Underworld.  The  Duat  is  illumined  by  thy  glory. 
The  souls  {ba.fi)  in  their  secret  dwellings  are  illuminated  in 
their  caverns.  Thou  annihilatest  Evil  in  dashing  down 
and  annihilating  the  foes.' 

"  The  Osiris  N.  saith,  in  adoring  Ra  Harmakhis  at  his 
setting  in  the  Land  of  Life  :  '  Hail  to  thee,  Ra  !  Hail  to 
thee,  Turn,  at  thine  arrival !  Beautiful,  radiant,  exalted 
One !      Thou    passest  along   the   heaven,   thou   traversest 

4 


50  SUN    WORSHIP. 

the  earth,  thou  unitest  thyself  with  the  upper  heaven  in 
incense.^  The  dwellers  in  the  two  halves  of  Egypt  bow 
themselves  before  thee,  they  give  adoration  unto  thee  ;  the 
gods  and  the  dwellers  in  the  Underworld  rejoice  over  thy 
beauties,  the  dwellers  in  secret  places  extol  thee.  The 
princes  whom  thou  hast  created  upon  earth  make  offering 
unto  thee.  They  who  tarry  on  the  horizon  convey  thee, 
and  those  who  are  in  the  Sekti  bark  guide  thy  wandering. 
They  extol  thee  because  of  the  victory  of  thy  majesty, 
saying  :  '  Come  !  come  !  approach  in  peace  ! '  To  thee 
belongeth  joyful  acclamation,  Lord  of  Heaven,  Ruler  of  the 
Underworld.  Thy  mother  Nut  embraceth  thee.  She 
seeth  in  thee  her  son  who  is  the  fearful  and  the  terrible 
One,  who  setteth  in  the  Land  of  Life  at  the  gloaming. 
Then  uplifteth  thee  thy  father  Tanen  (in  this  connexion 
the  earth) ;  he  putteth  his  arms  behind  thee  (to  protect 
thee).  There  ensueth  thy  rejuvenation  on  the  earth. 
Tanen  placeth  thee  among  the  honoured  before  Osiris. 
The  deceased  N.  is  in  peace,  in  peace  ;  he  is  Ra  himself 

"  These  are  the  wOrds  to  be  spoken  before  Ra  when  he 
setteth  in  the  Land  of  Life  ;  both  arms  of  the  speaker 
must  hang  downwards. 

"  The  Osiris  N.  saith,  extolling  Tum  at  his  setting  in 
the  Land  of  Life,  in  the  splendour  of  Duat  (in  Duat  which 
he  fills  with  splendour) :  '  Hail  to  thee !  thou  who  settest 
in  the  Land  of  Life,  thou  father  of  the  gods  ;  thou  unitest 
thyself  with  thy  mother  in  the  Land  of  the  West ;  her  arms 
enfold  thee  daily.     Thy  majesty  hath  part  in  the  abode  of 

'  A  metaphor  derived  from  the  story  of  the  self  immolation  of  the 
phoenix  by  fire  at  Heliopolis,  on  an  incense  strewn  pyre. 


BOOK    OF   THE   DEAD,   CHAPTER   XV.  5 1 

Sokaris.'  Rejoiced  art  thou  at  the  love  which  is  borne  thee. 
The  gates  upon  the  horizon  are  opened  unto  thee,  thou 
settest  in  the  Mountain  of  the  West.  Thy  rays  traverse  the 
earth  to  enlighten  the  lands  of  the  dwellers  in  the  Under- 
world. They  who  are  in  the  Underworld  and  the 
acclaiming  spirits  are  stirred  in  excitement  at  the  sight 
of  thee  every  day.  Give  peace  to  the  gods  upon  earth, 
namely  unto  them  which  follow  thee  ;  I  am  of  those  who 
follow  in  thy  train.  Exalted  spirit  {ba)  who  didst  beget 
the  gods,  who  didst  equip  them  with  his  attributes,  over 
whom  no  judgment  is  held  (?) !  Prince !  thou  who  art 
great  in  secret  things  !  May  thy  beauteous  face  be  gracious 
unto  the  Osiris  N.     Khepera,  father  of  the  gods  ! 

" '  There  is  no  destruction  (for  the  deceased)  to  all  eternity, 
because  of  (the  existence  of)  this  book  ;  I  am  established 
thereby.  He  who  recites  it  or  copies  it  is  thereby  in  peace. 
Abundance  was  given  unto  me  ;  mine  arms  are  full  of 
food  and  drink  (literally,  bread  and  beer).  I  united  myself 
with  this  book  after  my  lifetime.  It  was  written  to  great 
comfort  of  heart.' " 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  last  sentences  assure  the  reciter 
of  the  chapter  (including  any  one  who  should  have  it  copied 
for  his  use)  that  he  should  be  united  with  the  book,  take 
it  with  him  into  the  life  beyond,  and  so  attain  to  everlasting 
bliss.  This  assurance  is  often  given  in  similar  words  in 
other  religious,  and  more  especially  in  magical  texts. 

'  A  division  of  the  nether  world:  cf.  p.  92. 


CHAPTER   III. 

SOLAR   MYTHS. 

"r>  A  was  regarded  by  the  Egyptians,  not  only  as  the  Sun 
-'-^  god,  but  also  as  the  first  King  of  Egypt.  In  early 
times  the  people  seem  to  have  held  this  conception  with 
a  fixity  which  no  theological  attempts  of  the  priests  to  set 
other  deities  higher  in  the  pantheon  could  shake.  Not 
until  later  times  did  he  yield  his  place  in  popular  favour 
to  Osiris,  the  archetype  of  Egyptian  kings  ;  nor  even  then 
was  he  altogether  deposed,  but  while  Osiris  was  supposed 
to  have  ruled  as  a  man  over  men  only,  the  dominion  of 
Ra  was  relegated  to  a  time  when  gods  still  sojourned 
among  men  and  Ra  bore  rule  over  both. 

The  reign  of  Ra  was  placed  in  remotest  antiquity. 
"  The  like  has  not  happened  since  the  time  of  Ra,"  was 
a  common  phrase  in  reference  to  any  event  such  as  had 
never  been  known  within  the  memory  of  man.  The  god 
was  regarded  by  the  Egyptian  people  as  purely  anthro- 
pomorphic. We  find  him  appearing  in  popular  tales, 
and — as  in  "  The  Story  of  the  Two  Brothers  "  ^ — walking 
upon  earth  along  with  other  gods,  conversing  with  mortals, 
granting  to  his  favoured  ones  gifts  which  did  not  always 

^  Pa;p.  d'  Orbiney,  p.  9:  cf.  Maspero,  Contes ^opulaires,  second 
edition,  pp.  18  et  seq. ;  Petrie,  Egyptian  Tales,  ii.,  pp.  36  et  seq. 

52 


DIVINE   DESCENT   OF   THE   KINGS.  53 

minister  to  their  permanent  happiness,  and  imagined  as  a 
kindly  old  man.  There  is  nothing  remarkable  in  this  ; 
parallel  ideas  can  be  adduced  from  the  popular  tales  of 
the  most  diverse  races  and  religions.  But  in  Egypt  this 
anthropomorphic  and  somewhat  low  conception  of  divinity 
prevailed  even  among  the  cultured  classes.  The  king  was 
held  to  be  as  literally  the  son  of  Ra  as  of  the  queen, 
materially  begotten  ;  the  preceding  monarch,  therefore, 
was  but  his  reputed  father.  This  belief  was  directly 
expressed  in  popular  tales  such  as  "  The  Story  of  King 
Khufu,"  in  which  it  is  told  how  Ra  was  father  of  the  first 
kings  of  the  Vth  Dynasty.^  We  find  the  same  belief  still 
current  in  the  tradition  that  Alexander  the  Great  was 
born  of  the  union  of  Zeus  Ammon  and  Olympias,  a 
tradition  which  Alexander  himself  favoured,  but  which 
was  afterwards  interpreted  to  the  effect  that  his  father  was 
not  indeed  a  god  but  the  magician  Nectanebus,  the  last 
native  King  of  Egypt,  who  had  assumed  this  disguise. 
The  same  idea  is  expressed  repeatedly  in  official  inscrip- 
tions :  from  the  time  of  the  Vth  Dynasty  the  king 
systematically  refers  to  himself  as  "  Son  of  Ra,"  and  there 
are  also  texts  in  which  the  god  boasts  of  this  paternal 
relation  in  no  equivocal  terms.^  This  anthropomorphic 
presentation  of  Ra  also  runs  through  the  surviving  myths 
concerning   him,  myths  which    usually  relate  to  the  time 

'  Westcar  Papyrtis,  Berlin,  published  and  commented  upon  by 
Erman,  Die  Marc  hen  des  Papyrzis  Westcar,  Berlin,  1890.  Cf. 
Maspero,  Contes  ;populaires,  2nd  Ed.,  pp.  74  et  seq. ;  Petrie, 
Egyptian  Tales,  vol.  i.,  pp.  g  et  seq.,  especially  p.  32. 

-  Cf.  Wiedemann,  Le  Roi  dans  I'aizcienne  Egypte.  Le  Museon, 
xiii.,  p.  372. 


54  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

when,  owing  to  his  extreme  old  age,  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment began  to  fall  from  his  hands,  and  gods  and  men 
became  disobedient  and  rebelled  against  their  lord.  The 
three  most  important  of  these  legends  are :  i.  The 
Legend  of  Ra  and  I  sis,  preserved  in  a  Turin  papyrus 
dating  from  the  XXth  Dynasty  ;  2.  The  Legend  of 
the  Destruction  of  Mankind,  inscribed  on  the  walls  of 
the  tombs  of  Seti  I.  and  Rameses  III.;  3.  The  Legend 
of  the  Winged  Sun  Disk,  of  which  the  text  covers  a  wall 
of  the  Ptolemaic  temple  of  Edfu,  These  texts  are  of 
profound  significance  as  regards  Egyptian  thought  and 
conceptions  of  deity,  and  hence  it  is  desirable  to  give  an 
approximately  literal  translation  of  them  in  their  main 
portions. 

The  Legend  of  Ra  and  Isis.^ 

"  Chapter  of  the  divine  god  who  created  himself,  maker 
of  heaven  and  earth,  of  the  breath  of  life,  of  the  gods,  of 
men,  of  the  wild  beasts,  of  cattle,  of  creeping  things,  of  fowl 
and  fish  ;  king  of  men  and  gods,  to  whom  the  centuries 
are  years,  who  hath  many  names,  whom  none  knoweth, 
whom  even  the  gods  know  not. 

"  Isis  was  a  woman,  mighty  of  word  ;  her  heart  was  tired 
of  men,  she  preferred  the  gods.  Then  she  thought  in  her 
heart  whether  she  might  not  possess  the  world  in  heaven 
and  upon  earth  even   as  Ra  did,  by  means  of  the  name 

'  Pleyte  and  Rossi,  Pap.  de  Turin,  pis.  31,  'j'],  131-8 ;  Lefebure, 
Aeg.  Zeitschrift,  1883,  pp.  2"]  et  sag. ;  Erman,  Aegypten,  pp.  359 
et  seq.  ;  Maspero,  Les  Origines,  pp.  162-4  ;  BUDGE,  First  Steps  in 
Egyptian,  pp.  241  et  seq. 


LEGEND   OF   RA   AND   ISIS.  55 

of  the  august  god  " — i.e.  the  secret  name  of  Ra,  which  no 
man  knoweth,  and  to  knowledge  of  which  the  god  himself 
owed  his  power  over  gods  and  men. 

'*  The  god  Ra  came  daily  at  the  head  of  his  companions 
to  sit  upon  his  throne  ;  he  had  grown  old,  his  mouth  ran 
and  the  drivelling  flowed  to  earth,  his  spittle  fell  upon 
the  ground.  And  Isis  with  her  hand  kneaded  it  together 
with  the  earth  that  was  there  ;  she  made  thereof  a  sacred 
serpent  unto  which  she  gave  the  form  of  a  spear.  She 
wound  it  not  about  her  face  (as  goddesses  wore  the  uraeus 
coiled  about  the  head),  but  cast  it  on  the  way  which  the 
great  god  traversed  in  his  Double  Kingdom  whenever  he 
would. 

"  The  venerable  god  advanced,  the  gods  who  served  him 
as  their  Pharaoh  followed  him,  he  went  forth  as  on  every 
day.  Then  the  sacred  serpent  bit  him.  The  divine  god 
opened  his  mouth,  and  his  cry  reached  unto  heaven.  His 
cycle  of  gods  cried,  'What  is  it?'  and  his  gods  cried, 
'  Behold  ! '  He  could  not  answer  ;  his  jaws  chattered,  his 
limbs  trembled  ;  the  poison  seized  on  his  flesh  even  as  the 
Nile  covers  its  domain  (at  the  inundation). 

"  When  the  great  god  had  quieted  his  heart  he  cried  unto 
his  following :  '  Come  unto  me,  ye  children  of  my  body, 
ye  gods  who  went  forth  from  me !  Let  Khepera  know  it. 
A  painful  thing  hath  injured  me ;  my  heart  feeleth  it,  but 
mine  eyes  see  it  not,  my  hand  did  it  not.  I  know  not 
who  hath  done  it  to  me  ;  never  felt  I  pain  like  unto  this, 
no  evil  is  worse  than  it. 

" '  I  am  a  prince,  son  of  a  prince,  the  seed  {iidi)  of  a  god  ; 
I  am  the  Great    One,  son  of  the  Great  One,  my  father 


56  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

excogitated  my  name  ;  I  am  he  of  many  names,  of  many 
forms  ;  my  form  is  in  every  god.  I  called  forth  Tum, 
Horus,  the  gods  who  give  praise.  My  name  was  pro- 
nounced by  my  father  and  by  my  mother,  then  it  was 
hidden  in  me  that  no  magician  might  arise  who  should 
use  magic  arts  against  me  (which  might  be  done  by  one 
knowing  the  secret  name  of  the  god). 

" '  I  had  come  forth  to  look  upon  that  which  I  had  made, 
I  was  walking  in  the  two  lands  which  I  had  formed,  when 
something  which  I  knew  not  stung  me.  Fire  it  is  not, 
water  it  is  not.  My  heart  is  burning,  my  limbs  tremble, 
my  members  shudder.  Let  the  children  of  the  gods  be 
brought  unto  me,  with  magic  words,  with  an  understanding 
mouth,  whose  might  reaches  unto  heaven.' 

"  The  children  of  all  the  gods  came  full  of  mourning. 
Isis  came  with  her  magic  arts,  she  whose  mouth  is  full  of 
breath  of  life,  whose  formulas  destroy  sufferings,  whose  word 
animateth  the  dead.  She  said,  'What  is  it,  divine  father? 
what  is  it  ?  A  serpent  hath  spread  this  evil  in  thee,  one  of 
thy  creatures  hath  lifted  up  his  head  against  thee.  Verily 
it  shall  fall  by  mighty  incantations  ;  I  will  cause  it  to 
recede  at  the  sight  of  thy  rays.' 

"  The  venerable  god  opened  his  mouth  :  '  I  went  upon 
the  way,  I  walked  in  the  two  lands  of  mine  earth,  it  was 
the  desire  of  my  heart  to  see  that  which  I  formed  ;  then 
was  I  bitten  of  a  serpent  which  I  saw  not.  Fire  it  is  not, 
water  it  is  not.  I  am  colder  than  water,  I  am  hotter  than 
fire  ;  all  my  members  sweat,  I  tremble,  mine  eye  hath  no 
power,  I  see  not  the  heaven,  and  water  runneth  from  my 
face  as  in  the  season  of  summer.' 


LEGEND   OF   RA   AND   ISIS.  57 

"  Isis  said  unto  Ra  :  '  Oh  tell  me  thy  name,  divine  father 
for  he  shall  live  who  is  delivered  from  the  ill  by  his  own 
name.'  Then  spake  Ra :  '  I  have  made  the  heaven  and 
the  earth,  I  have  ordered  the  mountains  and  formed  all 
that  is  thereon.  I  am  he  who  made  the  water,  creating 
the  inundation.  I  created  the  husband  of  his  mother  (a 
title  bestowed  upon  various  deities  [p.  104]  ;  in  this  instance 
it  is  probably  Amen  Ra  who  is  meant).  I  made  the 
heaven  and  the  secret  of  both  horizons,  and  I  placed  the 
soul  {ba)  of  the  gods  within  them.  I  am  he  who  at  the 
opening  of  his  eyes  createth  all  light ;  when  he  closeth  his 
eyes  he  createth  darkness.  The  water  of  the  Nile  riseth  at 
his  command ;  the  gods  know  not  his  name.  I  make  the 
hours  and  create  the  days  ;  I  send  the  festival  of  the  New 
Year  and  form  the  river ;  I  make  the  living  fire  in  order 
to  regulate  the  tasks  in  the  dwellings.  I  am  Khepera 
in  the  morning,  Ra  at  noon,  and  Turn  in  the  evening.' 

"  The  poison  v/as  not  turned  in  its  course,  the  great  god 
was  not  healed.  Isis  spake  unto  Ra  :  '  Thy  name  was  not 
mentioned  in  thy  speech.  Tell  it  unto  me,  that  the  poison 
may  go  hence,  for  he  shall  live  whose  name  is  repeated  '  (in 
the  incantation). 

"  The  poison  burned  with  burning,  stronger  was  it  than 
the  flame  of  fire.  The  god  Ra  said  :  '  I  grant  that  Isis 
search  me,  that  my  name  pass  from  my  bosom  into  her 
bosom.'  The  god  hid  himself  from  the  gods,  the  bark  of 
eternity  was  empty  {i.e.  the  bark  in  which  the  Sun  god 
traversed  the  heavens).  When  the  moment  had  come  for 
the  going  forth  from  his  heart,  then  said  Isis  to  her  son 
Horus  :  '  He  shall  bind  himself  with  a  sacred  oath  to  give 


5 8  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

up  his  eyes  '  (Sun  and  Moon,  the  visible  signs  of  the  Sun's 
power). 

"  The  great  god's  name  was  taken  from  him,  and  Isis,  the 
great  enchantress,  said  :  '  Flee,  poison  !  go  forth  from  Ra ! 
Eye  of  Horus,^  depart  out  of  the  god,  and  flow  forth 
glittering  out  of  his  mouth  !  I  it  is  who  work  ;  I  cause 
the  vanquished  poison  to  fall  upon  earth,  for  the  name  of 
the  great  god  was  taken  from  him.  Let  Ra  live,  but  let 
the  poison  die  ! '  So  spake  Isis  the  Great  One,  the  mistress 
of  the  gods,  she  who  knoweth  Ra  and  his  name  itself." 

The  concluding  words  of  this  text  go  on  to  say  that  it 
»s  an  excellent  charm  against  snake  poison  to  recite  this 
story  over  an  image  of  Tum,  or  Horus,  or  Isis  ;  or,  having 
written  it  down,  to  dissolve  the  writing  and  drink  the 
concoction  ;  or  to  inscribe  it  on  a  piece  of  linen  and  wear 
it  suspended  from  the  neck. 

The  Destruction  of  Mankind.- 
"  Ra  is  the  god  who  created  himself,  and  was  king  over 
gods  and  men  alike.  Mankind  took  counsel  against  his 
majesty  and  spake  :  '  Behold,  his  majesty  the  god  Ra  is 
grown  old  ;  his  bones  are  become  silver,  his  limbs  gold, 
and  his  hair  pure  lapis  lazuli.'  His  majesty  heard  the 
words  which   men   spake  concerning   him.      His   majesty 

^  An  expression  denoting  any  god  sent  gift  and  here  referring 
to  the  poison  of  which  Isis  was  the  cause. 

^  Lef^bure,  Tombeau  de  Seti  I.,  part  iv.,  pis.  15-18  ;  Tombeau 
de  Rajnses  III.,  pis.  2-5  :  see  also  Bergmann,  Hieroglyj^hische 
Inschriften,  pis.  75-82  ;  Naville,  Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  iv.,  pp.  i 
et  seq.  ;  viii.,  pp.  412  et  seq. ;  Brugsch,  Die  7ieue  Weltordmaig, 
Berlin,  1 881,  and  Religion  der  Alien  Aegypter,  pp.  436-7 ;  Maspero, 
Les  Origines,  pp.  164-9. 


THE   DESTRUCTION    OF   MANKIND.  59 

spake  to  those  who  were  in  his  train  :  '  Call  unto  me  mine 
eye  (the  goddess  Hathor  Sekhet),  and  the  god  Shu  and 
the  goddess  Tefnut,  the  god  Seb  and  the  goddess  Nut, 
and  the  fathers  and  the  mothers  who  were  with  me  when 
I  was  in  Nu  (the  primeval  waters),  and  also  Nu  (the  god 
of  the  primeval  waters).  Let  him  bring  his  companions 
with  him  ;  let  him  bring  them  in  all  secrecy,  that  men 
may  not  see  them  and  flee.  Let  him  go  with  them  to 
the  great  temple  (the  temple  of  Heliopolis),  that  they  may 
give  counsel,  for  I  will  go  forth  out  of  the  primeval  waters 
to  the  place  at  which  I  shall  be  :  let  these  gods  be  brought 
to  me.' 

"  Now  when  these  gods  came  to  the  place  at  which  Ra 
was,  they  cast  themselves  down  to  earth  before  his  majesty, 
and  he  spake  before  Nu,  the  father  of  the  oldest  gods,  he 
who  created  mankind,  he  who  was  king  of  the  spirits  that 
know.  They  spake  before  his  majesty  :  '  Speak  unto  us 
that  we  may  hear  thy  words.'  And  Ra  spake  unto  Nu  : 
'  O  thou  eldest  god  by  whom  I  first  had  my  being,  and 
ye  ancestral  gods  !  behold,  mankind,  who  had  their  being 
from  mine  eye,  hold  counsel  against  me.  Tell  me  what 
ye  would  do  in  face  of  this.  Take  ye  counsel  for  me.  I 
will  not  slay  them  until  I  have  heard  what  }'e  say  con- 
cerning it.' 

"  Then  spake  the  majesty  of  the  god  Nu  :  '  O  my  son 
Ra,  thou  the  god  who  art  greater  than  his  creator  (Nu 
himself),  and  than  those  who  formed  him  !  Thy  throne 
standeth  fast,  great  is  the  fear  of  thee.  Turn  thine  eye 
against  those  who  conspire  against  thee.'  The  god  Ra 
spake  :  *  Behold,  men  flee  unto  the  hills  ;  their  heart  is  full 


6o  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

of  fear  because  of  that  which  they  said.'  Then  spake  the 
gods  before  his  majesty  (Ra  the  king)  :  '  Send  forth  thine 
eye  ;  let  it  destroy  for  thee  the  people  which  imagined 
wicked  plots  against  thee.  There  is  no  eye  among 
mankind  which  can  withstand  thine  eye  when  it  de- 
scendeth  in  the  form  of  the  goddess  Hathor.' 

"  Then  went  forth  this  goddess,  and  she  slew  mankind 
upon  the  hills.  Then  spake  the  majesty  of  this  god  : 
'  Approach  in  peace,  Hathor !  Never  will  I  be  parted  (?) 
from  thee.'  Then  spake  the  goddess :  '  Mayst  thou  live 
for  me  !  When  I  took  possession  of  mankind,  then  was 
my  heart  rejoiced.'  Then  spake  the  majesty  of  the  god 
Ra :  '  I  will  take  possession  of  mankind  as  their  king,  and 
destroy  (?)  them.'  And  it  came  to  pass  that  for  several 
nights  Sekhet  waded  in  the  blood  of  men,  beginning  at 
Herackopolis  Magna. 

"  Then  spake  Ra  :  '  Call  unto  me  swift  messengers  ;  let 
them  run  like  a  blast  of  wind.'  The  messengers  were 
forthwith  brought.  The  majesty  of  this  god  spake  :  '  Let 
them  run  to  Elephantine ;  let  them  bring  me  many 
mandrakes '  ^  (?).  These  mandrakes  (?)  were  brought  to 
him.  They  were  given  to  the  god  Sekti  (the  grinder), 
who  dwells  in  Heliopolis,  that  he  should  grind  these 
mandrakes.  Behold,  when  the  women  slaves  had  crushed 
corn  for  beer,  then  these  mandrakes  were  put  in  the  jars 
[in  which  was  the  beer  and  also]  human  blood.  Seven 
thousand  beer  jars  of  this  were  made, 

'  See  Brugsch,  Ae^;.  Zeitschrift,  1891,  pp.  31  et  seq.,  on  the  name 
of  this  plant ;  his  translation,  however,  can  be  accepted  only  as  an 
hypothesis. 


THE   DESTRUCTION   OF   MANKIND.  6l 

"  When  the  majesty  of  Ra,  King  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Egypt,  came  with  the  gods  to  see  this  beer,  and  day 
dawned,  after  this  goddess  had  been  slaughtering  men  as 
she  went  up  stream,  then  spake  the  majesty  of  this  god  : 
'  This  is  excellent.  I  shall  protect  mankind  against 
her.' 

"  Ra  spake  :  '  Let  these  jars  be  carried  and  brought  (?) 
to  the  place  at  which  men  are  being  slaughtered.'  The 
majesty  of  Ra,  King  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  com- 
manded that  this  soporific  drink  should  be  poured  forth 
during  the  fine  night.  The  fields  on  all  four  sides  were 
overflowed,  as  the  majesty  of  this  god  had  commanded. 

"  And  the  goddess  Sekhet  came  in  the  morning  ;  she 
found  the  fields  inundated,  she  was  rejoiced  thereat,  she 
drank  thereof,  her  heart  was  rejoiced,  she  went  about 
drunken  and  took  no  more  cognisance  of  men.  Then 
spake  the  majesty  of  Ra  to  this  goddess  :  *  Approach  in 
peace,  thou  charming  goddess '  {anii.t\  From  this  the 
pleasant  damsels  in  Amu  have  their  origin  {i.e.  because  Ra 
had  called  Sekhet  dini.t,  "  charming,"  attractive  damsels 
were  installed  as  priestesses  in  the  city  of  Amu  in  the 
western  Delta,  a  city  called  Apis  by  the  Greek  writers)- 
And  the  majesty  of  Ra  spake  to  this  goddess  :  '  Soporific 
drinks  shall  be  prepared  for  thee  at  every  New  Year's 
feast,  and  verily  their  number  {i.e.  the  number  of  the  jars 
containing  the  drink)  shall  correspond  to  that  of  my  hand- 
maidens.' Therefore  from  that  day  soporific  drinks  are 
made  by  all  men  at  the  feast  of  Hathor,  according  to  the 
number  of  the  handmaidens.^ 

^  The  feasts  of  Hathor  were  festivals  at  which  drink  flowed  freely 


62  SOLAR    MYTHS. 

"  And  the  majesty  of  Ra  spake  to  this  goddess  :  '  I  suffer 
from  a  burning  pain;  whence  is  this  pain(?)?'  The 
majesty  of  Ra  spake  :  *  Truly  I  am  ahve,  but  my  heart  is 
weary  of  being  together  with  men  ;  I  have  not  destroyed 
them,  they  are  not  destroyed  as  befits  my  might'  Then 
spake  the  gods  who  were  of  his  following :  '  Let  thy 
weariness  alone  ;  thy  might  is  according  to  thy  desire.' 
But  the  majesty  of  this  god  spake  unto  the  majesty  of  Nu 
(the  god  of  the  primeval  waters) :  '  For  the  first  time  my 
limbs  ail ;  I  will  not  wait  until  this  weakness  seizeth  me 
a  second  time.'" 

Here  the  narrative  is  broken  by  considerable  lacunae, 
and  of  the  sequel  only  detached  portions  of  sentences  can 
be  deciphered.  According  to  these  it  would  seem  that 
Nu  commanded  Shu,  and  the  goddess  Nut  under  her  form 
of  the  celestial  cow,  to  help  Ra  in  his  pain,  in  order  that 
he  might  again  feel  inclined  to  reign  ;  and  after  somewhat 
long  discussion  Nut  took  the  god  Ra  upon  her  back. 
At  this  juncture  men  once  more  ventured  to  show  them- 
selves upon  earth,  and  seeing  Ra  upon  the  back  of  Nut 
were  seized  with  repentance  for  what  they  had  done,  and 
prayed  Ra  that  he  would  slay  his  enemies,  i.e.  those  who 
had  conspired  against  him.  Meanwhile  Ra  was  carried 
onward  until  he  came  to  the  Abode  of  the  Cow  (a 
temple  in  the  Libyan  nome),  and  the  men  went  with  him. 
"  He  reached  it  while  it  was  still  night.  But  when  the  earth 
grew  light  and  it  was  morning,  the  men  went  forth  with 

and  much  intoxication  prevailed  ;  the  inscriptions  even  make  men- 
tion of  a  certain  festival  known  as  the  Intoxication  Festival  held 
in  her  honour  and  celebrated  at  Denderah  in  the  month  of  Thoth. 


THE    DESTRUCTION    OF   MANKIND.  63 

their  bows  and  marched  to  battle  against  the  enemies  of 
the  god  Ra.  Then  spake  the  majesty  of  this  god  :  '  Your 
crime  is  forgiven  you  ;  the  slaughter  (which  ye  have  exe- 
cuted for  me)  atoneth  for  the  slaughter  (which  the  rebels 
had  purposed  against  me).'  And  this  god  spake  unto 
the  goddess  Nut :  '  I  have  determined  to  cause  myself 
to  be  uplifted  into  the  sky  '  "  {i.e.  to  join  the  blessed  gods 
and  to  renounce  his  rule  of  the  world).  His  desire  was 
fulfilled,  and  having  reached  the  upper  regions  he  inspected 
the  territory  which  he  had  there  chosen  for  his  own, 
declared  his  purpose  of  gathering  many  men  about  him  in 
it,  and  created  for  their  future  accommodation  the  various 
divisions  of  the  heavenly  world.  "  His  majesty — to  whom 
Life!  Prosperity!  Health!^ — spake:  ' Let  there  be  set  (//t^/^/) 
a  great  field,'  and  there  appeared  the  Field  of  Rest  {hetcp) ; 
*  I  will  gather  {darad)  plants  in  it,'  and  there  appeared 
the  Field  of  Aarfi  (Aa/n) ;  '  Therein  do  I  gather  as  its 
inhabitants  things  which  hang  from  heaven,  even  the 
stars.'  Then  Nut  trembled  exceedingly  (i.e.  the  vault  of 
heaven  shook  so  that  the  stars  were  dislodged  and  fell, 
as  Ra  had  commanded,  into  the  land  which  he  had  made). 
And  the  majesty  of  the  god  Ra  spake :  '  I  excogitated 
millions  of  beings  that  they  may  extol  me.'  And  there 
appeared  millions.  And  the  majesty  of  Ra  spake  :  '  O 
my  son  Shu,  do  thou  unite  thyself  with  my  daughter  Nut, 
and  there  watch  for  me  over  the  millions  of  millions  who 
are    there,   who   there   tarry    in    darkness ' " — i.e.    Shu    is 

'  Compare  this  common  Egyptian  formula,  used  after  naming  the 
king,  with  "  in  health  and  wealth  long  to  live"  in  Prayer  for  the 
Sovereign,  Boo^  0/ Co/ufnon  Frayer.     (Tkans.) 


64  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

appointed  by  Ra  to  be  a  light  to  men  upon  earth  :  he  is 
installed  by  the  old  Sun  as  the  new. 

At  this  point  in  the  narrative  there  follows  a  long  text 
describing  the  celestial  cow  in  very  obscure  terms  of  which 
the  difficulty  is  enhanced  by  clerical  errors.  According 
to  one  scheme-  of  Egyptian  cosmography,  this  cow  was 
supposed  to  form  the  celestial  vault,  and  the  sun  to  travel 
over  the  surface  of  its  body,  which  was  supported  in  its 
standing  position  above  the  earth  by  various  divinities, 
and  more  especially  by  the  god  Shu.  Sometimes  the  cow 
was  identified  with  Hathor,  and  sometimes  with  Nut.  It 
was  upon  her  back  that  Ra  abode  after  his  retirement, 
and  there  he  ruled  the  upper  heaven,  which,  as  the  text 
relates,  he  had  himself  created,  together  with  all  its  fields 
wherein  the  Egyptian  hoped  to  find  a  dwelling  place  after 
death  as  one  of  the  millions  who  there  give  praise  unto 
the  god  who  made  them. 

After  this  reorganization  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
Ra  remembered  that  he  was  leaving  existent  upon  earth 
creatures  dangerous  even  to  himself,  and  whose  sting  had 
brought  about  the  first  detriment  to  his  strength.  So 
before  altogether  relinquishing  the  kingly  office  he  gave 
command  concerning  these  creatures  and  constituted 
serpent  charmers  special  favourites  of  the  godhead.  "  The 
majesty  of  this  god  spake  unto  Thoth :  *  Call  unto  me  the 
majesty  of  the  god  Seb  and  say  unto  him  :  Come  thou 
forthwith.'  When  the  majesty  of  Seb  came  to  him,  then 
spake  the  majesty  of  the  god  Ra :  '  Complaint  is  made  of 
the  reptiles  which  are  in  thee ;  may  they  be  afraid  of  me 
as    I    now  am !     When  thou    hast  learned    their   purpose 


A 


THE   DESTRUCTION   OF    MANKIND.  67 

against  me.  then  hasten  to  the  place  where  my  father 
Nu  is  and  say  unto  him,  '  Watch  thou  the  reptiles  of  the 
earth  and  of  the  water,  and  make  also  writings  for  every 
hole  in  which  the  reptiles  find  place,  saying :  Beware 
of  harming  anything.  Let  them  know  that  I  go  hence, 
but  I  shall  shine  upon  them.  Their  father  shall  keep 
watch  on  them  :  thou  art  their  father  upon  earth  eternally. 
Let  heed  be  taken  to  these  creatures.  They  who  know 
magic  formulas  shall  charm  them,  armed  with  my  peculiar 
magic  formulas.  I  will  give  away  mine  own  formulas, 
I  will  commend  their  possessors  to  thy  son  Osiris  ;  their 
children  shall  be  protected  ;  they  shall  prosper  ;  they  shall 
deal  as  they  will  with  the  whole  earth,  for  they  charm  those 
who  are  in  their  holes.' 

"  The  majesty  of  the  god  Ra  spake :  *  Let  Thoth  be 
called  unto  me.'  He  was  forthwith  brought.  The  majesty 
of  this  god  spake  unto  Thoth  :  '  Let  us  go,  leaving  heaven 
and  my  dwelling,  for  I  will  make  something  shining  and 
resplendent  in  Duat  and  in  the  Land  of  the  Deep.  There 
shalt  thou  register  those  who  did  wicked  deeds  as  in- 
habitants, and  there  shalt  thou  imprison  them,  .  .  .  and 
the  servants  whom  my  heart  hateth.  But  thou  art  in  my 
place,  the  dweller  in  my  place  ;  thou  shalt  be  called  Thoth, 
the  Resident  (representative)  of  Ra.  I  give  unto  thee 
power  to  send  forth  thy  messengers '  (JiaU) — thereupon  the 
ibis  (Jiabt)  of  Thoth  came  into  being.  '  I  cause  thee  to 
uplift  thine  hand  before  the  great  Enneads  of  the  gods  : 
good  is  the  deed  {kJien)  which  thou  accomplishest ' — 
thereupon  the  sacred  bird  {tekhnt)  of  Thoth  came  into 
being.     '  I  cause   thee  to  embrace  idnJi)  the  two  heavens 


68  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

(the  day  and  the  night  sky)  with  thy  beauties' — thereupon 
the  moon  {ddJi)  of  Thoth  came  into  being.  '  I  cause  thee 
to  turn  {andit)  to  the  people  of  the  North ' — thereupon  the 
cynocephalus  ianan)  of  Thoth,  who  shall  be  my  {i.e.  Ra's) 
representative,  came  into  being.  '  Thou,  Thoth,  dost 
now  possess  my  place  in  the  sight  of  all  who  turn  them- 
selves towards  thee ;  all  creatures  extol  thee  as  a  god.' " 
Thus,  whenever  throughout  this  speech  Ra  pronounces 
the  word  which  phonetically  corresponds  to  the  name 
of  a  sacred  animal,  that  moment  the  animal  comes  into 
being. 

After  these  words,  in  which  Ra  designated  the  god  of 
wisdom  and  of  lawful  order  as  his  representative,  and  at 
the  same  time  created  for  him  his  sacred  animals,  there 
follows  a  short  notice  quite  irrelevant  to  the  narrative,  and 
concerned  rather  with  the  manner  in  which  the  myth  must 
be  recited  in  order  to  bring  about  magical  results.  "  When 
a  person  pronounces  these  words  for  himself  he  shall  rub 
himself  with  oil  and  unguent  ;  an  incense  burner  full  of 
incense  shall  be  on  his  hands  ;  behind  his  two  ears  (?)  shall 
be  natron,  sweet  smelling  unguent  upon  his  lips.  He 
shall  be  clothed  with  two  new  garments,  he  shall  be  puri- 
fied with  water  of  the  inundation,  he  shall  wear  white  (?) 
shoes  upon  his  feet,  the  figure  of  truth  shall  be  painted 
upon  his  tongue  with  green  paint.  When  the  heart  of 
Thoth  desires  to  recite  this  book  for  Ra,  then  shall  he 
purify  himself  seven  times  in  three  days  :  priests  and  men 
shall  do  the  like." 


LEGEND   OF   THE   WINGED   SUN   DISK.  69 


The  Legend  of  the  Winged  Sun  Disk.^ 

"In  the  year  t,6^  of  the  reign  of  Ra  Harmakhis,  the 
ever  living.  Ra  was  in  the  land  of  Nubia  with  his 
warriors,  but  foes  conspired  (liii)  against  him,  and  therefore 
to  this  day  that  country  bears  the  name  of  Conspirators' 
Land  {Uaiia).  Then  the  god  Ra  went  on  his  way  in  his 
bark  together  with  his  following,  and  landed  in  the  nome 
of  Edfu.  Here  the  god  Horbehudti  -  was  in  the  bark  of 
Ra,  and  spake  unto  his  father :  '  O  Harmakhis  !  I  see  how 
foes  conspire  against  their  lord.'  Then  spake  the  majesty 
of  the  god  Harmakhis  to  the  person  of  Horbehudti :  '  Thou 
son  of  Ra,  Exalted  One  who  didst  come  forth  from  me, 
slay  the  enemy  who  is  before  thee  speedily.'  Horbehudti 
flew  up  to  the  sun  ^  as  a  great  winged  disk  ;  therefore  was 
he  henceforth  called  the  Great  God,  the  Lord  of  Heaven. 
From  heaven  he  saw  the  foe,  he  pursued  them  as  a  great 
winged  disk.  Because  of  the  fierce  onset  of  his  face 
against  them  their  eyes  no  longer  saw,  their  ears  no  longer 
heard  ;  each  man  slew  his  neighbour  speedily,  not  a  head 
remained  by  which  they  could  live.  But  Horbehudti  came 
in  the  bark  of  Ra  Harmakhis  in  a  many  coloured  form  as 
a  great  winged  disk.  Then  spake  Thoth  to  Ra  :  '  Lord 
of  the  gods  !  there  came  the  god  of  Behudet  (Edfu)  in  the 

'  Published  by  Naville,  Mythe  d'Horus,  pis.  12-19;  translated 
by  Brugsch  in  Abh.  der  Gdttinger  Akad.,  xiv.  (1870). 

-  For  the  reading  of  this  name  designating  Horus  as  a  sparrow 
hawk  cf.  Wiedemann,  Pro.  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch.,  xvii.,  pp.  196  et  seq. 

3  In  this  case  it  is  evident  that  Ra  is  supposed  to  be  dwelling 
upon  earth  rather  than  in  the  sun. 


70  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

form  of  a  great  winged  disk.  From  this  day  forth  he  shall 
be  called  Horbehudti'  (Horus  of  Edfu).  And  (Thoth) 
spake :  '  From  this  day  forth  the  city  of  Edfu  shall  be 
called  the  city  of  Horbehudti.'  And  Ra  embraced  the 
form  of  Horus  and  spake  to  Horbehudti  :  '  Thou  didst 
put  grapes  in  the  water  which  cometh  forth  from  Edfu 
{i.e.  thou  didst  cause  the  red  blood  of  the  enemy  to  flow 
into  it),  and  thereat  thy  heart  rejoiceth.'  This  water  of 
Edfu  is  called  [Water  of  Grapes]  from  that  day  forth. 

"  And  Horbehudti  spake :  '  Advance,  Ra,  that  thou  mayest 
see  thine  enemies  lying  beneath  thee  in  this  land.'  Now 
when  the  majesty  of  Ra  had  traversed  the  way,  and  with 
him  the  goddess  Astarte,  then  saw  he  the  foe  lying  upon 
the  earth,  each  lay  stretched  out  like  a  prisoner.  Then 
spake  Ra  to  Horbehudti:  'That  is  a  pleasant  life.'  There- 
fore from  that  day  forth  the  place  of  Horbehudti  is  called 
Pleasant  Life.  The  god  Thoth  spake  :  *  This  was  a 
stabbing  {deU)  of  my  foes.'  The  nome  of  Edfu  is  called 
Stabbing  {deb)  from  that  day.  Thoth  spake  to  Horbehudti : 
'  Thou  art  a  great  protector '  {viak  da).  From  that  day  the 
sacred  bark  of  Horus  is  called  Great  of  Protection  {da  indk). 

"  Ra  spake  unto  the  gods  who  were  in  his  following  :  '  Let 
us  voyage  {kJien)  in  our  ship  to  the  Nile ;  we  are  glad,  for 
pur  enemies  lie  upon  the  ground.'  The  [canal]  in  which 
the  great  god  was  is  called  Navigable  Water  {pe  kJien) 
from  that  day. 

"  Thereupon  the  enemies  of  Ra  went  into  the  water ; 
they  were  changed  into  crocodiles  and  hippopotami.  But 
Harmakhis  sailed  along  on  the  water  in  his  bark.  Now 
when  the  crocodiles  and  hippopotami  had  reached  him,  then 


LEGEND   OF   THE   WINGED   SUN   DISK.  7 1 

they  opened  their  jaws  with  intent  to  harm  the  majesty 
of  the  god  Harmakhis.  Then  came  hither  Horbehudti ; 
his  servants  were  in  his  following  as  workers  with  weapons 
of  metal  (inesen) ;  ^  each  had  an  iron  lance  and  a  chain  in 
his  hand  ;  then  they  smote  the  crocodiles  and  the  hippo- 
potami. There  were  brought  in  on  the  spot  three  hundred 
and  eighty-one  enemies  who  had  been  slain  before  the 
city  of  Edfu. 

"  Then  spake  Harmakhis  to  Horbehudti :  '  Let  mine  image 
be  in  the  south  land,  for  that  is  a  place  where  there  was 
victory '  {iiekht  dli).  The  abode  of  Horbehudti  is  called  the 
Victorious  {iiekht  dJi)  Abode  from  that  day.  Thoth  spake 
after  he  saw  the  enemies  lying  upon  the  earth  :  '  Joyful 
is  your  heart,  ye  gods  of  heaven  !  Joyful  is  your  heart,  ye 
gods  of  earth  !  The  young  Horus  cometh  in  peace  ;  he 
hath  performed  wonders  in  his  expedition,  wherein  he  did 
according  to  the  Book  of  Slaying  the  Hippopotamus.'  ^ 
And  from  that  day  there  have  been  metal  (jnesen)  statues 
of  Horbehudti.^ 

"  Horbehudti  changed  his  form  into  that  of  a  winged  sun 
disk,  that  which  rests  over  the  prow  of  the  bark  of  Ra. 
He  took  with  him  Nekhebit,  the  goddess  of  the  South,  and 
Uazit,  the  goddess  of  the  North,  in  the  form  of  two  serpents, 

'  With  regard  to  these  meseniu,  which  are  in  the  first  place  smiths 
and  in  the  second  place  the  armed  companions  of  Horus,  cf.  Maspero, 
Les  Forger ons  d"  Horus,  Etudes  de  Mythologie,  ii.,  pp.  313  et  seq. 

-  I.e.  Horbehudti,  when  on  this  expedition,  had  duly  made  use  of 
the  magic  formulas  contained  in  that  book  and  had  thereby  obtained 
his  victory. 

^  As  a  matter  of  fact  Horus  is  very  commonly  represented  in 
metal,  and  especially  in  bronze. 


72  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

that  they  might  destroy  the  enemies  in  their  bodily  forms 
of  crocodiles  and  hippopotami  at  each  place  to  which  he 
came  in  the  South  Land  and  in  the  North  Land. 

"  Then  his  enemies  turned  from  before  him  ;  they  turned 
their  faces  to  the  south  (when  they  were  overtaken,  for, 
as  the  sequel  shows,  they  had  already  set  out  northward 
in  retreat) ;  their  courage  had  failed  them  for  fear  of  him. 
But  Horbehudti  was  behind  them  in  the  bark  of  Ra ;  a 
lance  of  iron  and  a  chain  were  in  his  hand.  With  him 
was  his  following  equipped  with  weapons  and  chains. 
Then  he  beheld  the  enemies  on  a  plain  to  the  south  east 
of  Thebes."  And  so  on.  Of  course  the  foes  were  con- 
quered on  this  and  successive  occasions.  They  had 
already  been  driven  back  to  the  nineteenth  nome  of  Upper 
Egypt  and  there  beaten,  when  the  leader  and  instigator 
of  the  rebellion  decided  to  go  out  in  person  against 
Horbehudti. 

"  Behold,  Set  went  forth  and  cried  out  horribly  {neha} 
as  he  flung  forth  curses  for  that  which  Horbehudti  had 
done  when  he  slew  the  foes.  Then  spake  Ra  to  Thoth : 
'  The  horrible  one  {iiehaha)  cries  out  aloud  at  that  which 
Horbehudti  hath  done  against  him.'  Then  spake  Thoth 
to  Ra :  '  Therefore  such  cries  shall  be  called  horrible 
inehahd)  from  this  day  forth.'  Horbehudti  fought  with 
Set  ;  he  threw  his  iron  at  him  ;  he  cast  him  down  onto  the 
ground  of  this  city,  which  is  called  from  that  day  forth 
Pa  reheM}     When  Horbehudti  returned  he  brought  Set 

^  I.e.  place  of  the  twin  brethren  Horus  and  Set,  for  such  is  the 
mutual  relationship  attributed  to  these  gods  in  a  myth  to  which 
we  find  frequent  reference. 


LEGEND  OF   THE  WINGED  SUN    DISK,  73 

with  him  ;  his  spear  stuck  in  his  neck,  his  chain  was  on 
his  hand,  the  club  of  Horus  had  smitten  him  to  shut  his 
mouth.     He  brought  him  before  his  father  Ra. 

"  Ra  spake  unto  Thoth  :  '  Let  the  companions  of  Set 
be  given  unto  Isis  and  to  Horus  her  son,  that  they  may 
deal  with  them  at  their  pleasure.'  .  .  .  Then  Horus  the 
son  of  Isis  cut  off  the  heads  of  Set  and  his  confederates 
before  his  father  Ra  and  the  assembled  great  company 
of  the  gods.  He  dragged  him  at  his  heels  through  the 
land ;  he  put  the  trident  on  his  head  and  back "  (an 
allusion  to  representations  of  Horus  in  which  he  is  shown 
standing  over  Set,  trident  in  hand).  After  a  few  lines  the 
text  goes  on  to  say,  "  Thus  did  Horbehudti  on  the  7th 
Tybi,  together  with  Horus  the  son  of  Isis,  who  had  made 
his  form  like  unto  that  of  Horbehudti,  slaughter  this 
wretched  foe  and  his  confederates."  But  still  the  issue 
of  the  conflict  was  indecisive.  Set  lived  on  notwith- 
standing his  decapitation  ;  he  changed  himself  into  a 
roaring  serpent  that  hid  itself  in  a  hole  which  it  was 
forbidden  to  leave.  The  land  was  searched  throughout, 
and  the  isolated  adherents  of  Set  were  massacred. 
From  time  to  time  Set  himself  reappeared,  and  once  it 
was  even  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  the  magic  formulas 
of  Isis  against  him.  The  last  battle  field  was  at  the 
city  of  Thalu  (Zaru)  in  the  far  east  of  Egypt.  Here 
Horbehudti  "  in  the  form  of  a  lion  slew  one  hundred  and 
forty-two  enemies ;  with  his  talons  he  slew  them,  he  tore 
out  their  tongues,  and  their  blood  streamed  on  the  heights. 
Then  the  rest  of  the  enemies  fled  to  the  sea. 

"  Then  spake  Ra  to  Horbehudti  :  '  Stay,  let  us  go  upon 


74  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

the  sea  to  smite  the  enemies  in  their  forms  of  crocodiles 
and  hippopotami  before  the  coast  of  Egypt.'  Then 
spake  Horbehudti  to  the  person  of  Ra :  '  O  Lord  of  the 
gods !  the  navigation  is  stopped  because  of  the  third 
part  of  the  enemies  which  are  still  remaining  and  are 
in  the  sea.'  Then  Thoth  recited  the  Chapter  of  Protecting 
the  Ship  ^  and  the  barks  of  the  fighters  in  metal  to  calm 
the  sea  in  the  hour  of  its  raging."  The  magic  formulas 
were  of  course  efficacious,  any  statement  to  this  effect 
being  omitted  as  altogether  superfluous,  and  the  enemies 
who  stirred  up  the  storm  all  disappeared.  "  Then  spake 
Ra  to  Thoth  :  '  Have  we  not  now  traversed  the  whole 
land?  Have  we  not  now  traversed  (seked)  the  whole 
sea  ? '  Thoth  spake  :  '  From  this  day  forth  this  water 
(the  sea)  shall  be  called  Sea  of  Traversing  {seked)' " 

Hereupon  the  gods  turned  back  by  night,  for  they  saw 
no  more  enemies.  As  they  drew  near  to  Nubia  and  the 
city  of  Shas-her,  Horbehudti  beheld  the  enemies  and  their 
champions  in  the  land  Uaua,  conspiring  {fia'tid)  against 
Horus  their  lord.  The  god  again  changed  himself  into  a 
winged  sun  disk,  and  in  this  form  he  slew  them. 

After  this  last  victory  the  gods  returned  to  their  own 
country.  Harmakhis  came  in  his  ship  and  landed  at  the 
Horus  Throne  {Tes  Her,  Edfu).  Thoth  spake:  "'The 
darter  of  rays  who  came  forth  from  Ra,  he  conquered  the 
enemies  in  his  form  [of  a  winged  sun  disk]  ;  from  this  day 
he  shall  be  called  the  Darter  of  Rays  who  emergeth  from 

'  An  analogous  work  is  preserved  containing  the  formulas  for 
the  protection  of  the  bark  7ieshemt,  which  played  a  great  part  at 
Abydos.    Cf.  Chassinat,  Rec.  de  Trav.,  xvi.,  pp.  105  et  seq. 


PUNNING   IN   MYTHOLOGY.  75 

the  horizon.'  Harmakhis  spake  unto  Thoth  :  '  Set  this 
sun  at  every  place  at  which  I  tarry,  at  the  places  of  the 
gods  in  the  South  Land,  at  the  places  of  the  gods  in  the 
North  Land,  [at  the  places  of  the  gods]  in  the  Under- 
world, that  it  may  banish  Evil  from  their  vicinity.'  Thoth 
set  this  form  at  every  spot,  at  every  place,  how  many 
soever  they  were,  at  which  any  gods  or  goddesses  might 
be.  And  this  is  the  winged  sun  disk  which  is  over  the 
sanctuaries  of  all  gods  and  goddesses  in  Egypt,  for  their 
sanctuary  is  also  that  of  Horbehudti." 

This  legend  as  given  above  is  translated  for  the  most 


From  draivtng  by  R.  E.  F.  Paget.] 

FIG.    14. — WINGED    SUN    DISK. 

From  door  to  chapel  of  Thothmes  I.  at  Deir  el  Bahri,  XVIIIth  Dynasty. 

part  literally  from  the  original.  It  is  interesting  in  various 
aspects.  It  strikingly  exemplifies  what  is  already  notice- 
able in  the  Legend  of  the  Destruction  of  Mankind  :  the 
characteristic  impulse  of  the  Egyptians  to  explain  the 
origin  of  certain  designations  by  plays  upon  words.* 
Because  a  god  pronounced  a  word  at  a  given  juncture, 
therefore  this  word  is  said  to  have  become  the  name  of 
some  thing  connected  with  the  occasion.  This  was  of 
course  an  exact  reversal  of  the  real  process  by  which  these 
very  trivial  sayings  were  invented  ;  for  they  were  attempts 
'  Cf.  Exodus,  xvi.  15,  31.    (Trans.) 


"J^  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

to  account  for  designations  already  existing  by  attributing 
to  the  gods  utterances  phonetically  suggestive  of  the  terms 
in  question.  Little  respect  was  paid  to  grammar  in  the 
matter :  as  an  instance,  the  group  of  signs  signifying 
"  Great  Protection  "  is  used  to  explain  the  name  "  Great 
One  of  Protection,"  i.e.  Greatest  Protector.  Still  less  regard 
was  given  to  the  meaning,  and  of  this  we  have  a  flagrant 
instance  in  a  Ptolemaic  inscription  of  Philae,^  where  the 
name  of  Tsis  is  explained  as  follows :  "  When  Isis  was 
born,  her  mother  Nut  said  on  seeing  her,  '  Behold  !  {as), 
that  is  r  {i.e.  it  is  my  image),  and  therefore  the  name  of 
Isis  {As.t)  was  given  to  the  goddess."  Obviously  such 
plays  upon  words  have  no  more  mythological  significance 
than  the  etymologies  advanced  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
to  account  for  the  names  of  their  divinities.  But  the 
prominence  of  such  punning  in  these  myths  is  a  good 
indication  of  the  comparative  lateness  of  their  origin,  since 
it  implies  that  it  was  thereby  sought  to  explain  the 
existence  of  sacred  n9,mes  which  had  already  ceased  to 
be  comprehensible.  The  myths  are  also  striking  examples 
of  the  audacity  of  Egyptian  conclusions  in  linguistic 
mythology,  while  yet  their  thoroughly  prosaic  form  betrays 
a  want  of  imagination  and  the  absence  of  any  sense  of 
poetical  construction.  In  the  latter  respect  they  present 
a  marked  contrast  to  the  beautiful  and  imaginative 
explanations  given  by  Greek  and  Roman  poets  in  their 
day  as  to  archaic  terms  of  which  the  original  significance 
had  been  lost.  This  suggested  comparison  of  national 
genius  is  the  more  applicable  since  the  Legend  of  the 
'  DtJMlCHEN,  Kal.  Insch.,  50^  1.  2  :  cf.  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1880,  p.  42. 


SYNCRETIC   MYTHOLOGY.  TJ 

Winged  Sun  Disk  was  an  essentially  popular  one.  It 
outlived  the  fall  of  paganism  and  afifected  a  series  of  Coptic 
texts  which,  in  making  use  of  the  well  known  apocryphal 
account  of  Christ's  journey  through  Egypt  as  a  child, 
describe  the  triumphal  march  of  the  Saviour  along  the 
Valley  of  the  Nile,  and  relate  how  He  drove  His  foes  from 
place  to  place,  destroying  them  as  He  went. 

Finally,  this  text  is  valuable  as  an  instance  of  that 
deliberate  mythological  syncretism  which  often  confronts 
the  reader  in  earlier  texts.  The  gist  of  the  story  is  a 
description  of  the  conflict  of  the  god  Ra  with  foes  who,  like 
mankind  in  the  legend  of  their  destruction,  take  advantage 
of  his  old  age  to  conspire  against  him.  Ra  did  not  himself 
go  forth  to  the  conflict,  but  had  recourse  to  the  god 
Horbehudti,  as  incorporate  in  the  form  of  a  winged  sun 
disk.  Horbehudti  also  was  originally  a  solar  deity,  but 
in  the  fusion  of  different  cults  he  came  to  be  represented 
as  subordinate  to  Ra  instead  of  his  equivalent.  To  him 
fell  the  task  of  conquering  the  enemies  of  the  Sun,  and 
he  accomplished  it,  traversing  the  whole  of  Egypt  in 
company  with  Ra  and  always  warding  off  Evil  from  the 
king  of  the  gods.  It  was  therefore  hoped  and  believed 
that  he  would  everywhere  and  at  all  times  exercise  the 
same  beneficent  power,  and  hence  the  image  of  the 
winged  sun  disk  was  placed  over  the  entrances  to  the  inner 
chambers  of  a  temple  as  well  as  over  its  gates,  and  on  stelae 
and  other  objects,  as  a  protection  against  all  harm  and 
especially  against  destruction.  It  is  to  this  practice  that 
the  concluding  words  of  the  text  refer.  Sometimes  this 
emblem  is   simply   a   winged  sun  disk,  but  we   also  find 


78  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

it  combined  with  two  serpents,  one  on  either  side  of  the 
disk,  which  are  occasionally  crowned  with  the  diadems  of 
Upper  and  Lower  Egypt.  They  represent  the  tutelary 
goddesses  of  the  two  divisions  of  the  land,  whom  Horbe- 
hudti  had  taken  with  him  to  the  conflict,  namely,  Nekhebit 
and  Uazit,  called  by  the  Greeks  Eileithyia  and  Buto. 
Although  seldom  represented  in  the  Old  Kingdom,  these 
winged  disks  were  common  in  the  New ;  and  in  later 
times  a  series  would  be  placed  one  below  the  other  on 
the  same  monument,  in  the  hope  that  the  efficacy  of  the 
sacred  symbol  might  be  strengthened  by  its  repetition. 

The  above  form  of  the  myth  was  a  local  legend  of 
Edfu,  where  Horbehudti  was  worshipped  as  the  nome  god, 
and  it  was  only  gradually  that  it  obtained  acceptance 
over  the  rest  of  Egypt ;  for  although  similar  legends 
of  the  passage  of  the  Sun  god  are  derived  from  other 
localities,  yet  these  assign  the  part  of  his  defender  to 
other  deities.  Thus  Anher,  god  of  This,  bore  in  Abydos 
the  cognomen  of  Slayer  of  the  Enemies,  and  it  was  his 
function  to  stand  in  the  prow  of  the  sun  bark  and  strike 
down  with  his  lance  the  creatures — especially  the 
crocodiles  and  hippopotami — which  impeded  the  progress 
of  the  boat,  and  therefore  also  that  of  Ra.  In  other 
places  a  similar  part  was  ascribed  to  the  god  Shu. 

The  old  myth  of  the  conflict  of  Horbehudti  with  the 
enemies  of  Ra,  who  represent  the  powers  of  darkness,  is 
fused  in  the  Edfu  text  with  a  second  myth— namely,  that 
of  the  expedition  of  Horus  the  son  of  Isis  against  Set 
the  murderer,  to  avenge  the  death  of  his  father  Osiris. 
To  the  consideration  of  this  second  myth  we  shall  return 


CONFLICT   OF   LIGHT   AND   DARKNESS.  79 

later.  In  outline  it  corresponds  to  the  original  form  of  the 
Horbehudti  legend,  and  according  to  it  Horus  traversed 
Egypt  and  everywhere  conquered  Set  and  his  adherents. 
In  this  case,  however,  the  foes  are  not  the  powers  of 
darkness  inimical  to  the  God  of  Light  ;  they  are  the 
evil  enemies  of  the  Good  Being.  Hence  the  issue  of  the 
conflict  is  in  both  cases  indecisive.  In  the  Horbehudti 
myth  the  enemies  of  Ra,  after  being  driven  northward 
throughout  the  length  of  Egypt,  suddenly  reappear  in 
the  south,  and  so  the  whole  war  threatens  to  break  out 
afresh,  because  although  light  can  indeed  conquer  and 
repulse  darkness,  yet  it  cannot  do  away  with  it.  So  also 
in  the  Horus  myth :  good  wins  the  victory  over  evil,  but 
has  no  power  to  destroy  it  from  out  the  world.  Hence 
also  in  the  story  of  the  Horus  expedition  in  the  Edfu 
myth.  Set  is  conquered  and  executed,  but  immediately 
he  returns  to  life  and  attacks  the  deity  in  another  form. 
Osiris  himself  is  not  mentioned  in  the  inscription,  but 
his  legend  is  presupposed,  and  apart  from  it  there  would 
be  no  sense  in  handing  over  the  punishment  of  Set  to 
I  sis,  upon  whom,  as  wife  and  sister  of  the  murdered  god, 
devolved  the  duty  of  avenging  his  blood.^ 

There  were  many  lesser  myths  relating  to  the  god  Ra 
besides  the  three  chief  ones  which  have  been  given  in  this 
chapter.  One  of  them,  however,  is  important  as  offering 
a    mythological   explanation  of  solar   and   lunar   eclipse.^ 

'  Cf.  the  myth  on  pp.  206  et  seq. 

2  Book  of  the  Dead,  ch.  112  :  cf.  GoODWiN,  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1871, 
pp.  144  et  seq. ;  Naville,  in  Etudes  did.  a  Leemans,  pp.  75  et  seq.  ; 
Plutarch,  De  Iside,  c.  55. 


80  SOLAR   MYTHS. 

This  tells  how  one  day  Horus  desired  to  sec  all  the  beings 
which  Ra  had  created,  and  at  length  Ra  showed  him  a 
black  hog,  and  at  the  same  moment  Horus  felt  a  violent 
pain  in  his  eye,  for  Set  had  changed  himself  into  a  hog 
in  order  to  do  hurt  to  Horus,  Therefore  Horus,  after  he 
was  well  again,  would  never  more  receive  swine  in  offering. 
As  related  by  the  Greeks,  the  myth  appears  in  a  modified 
form,  and  states  that  Set  injured  the  eye  of  Horus,  tore 
it  out,  and  swallowed  it,  but  was  afterwards  compelled  to 
restore  it  to  Helios  (Ra). 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE 
UNDERWORLD. 

'nr^HE  northernmost  of  the  great  Theban  temples  is  that 
-^  of  Qurnah,  built  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river  by 
Seti  I.  and  Rameses  II.  about  1350  B.C.  Leaving  the  plain 
and  turning  to  the  hills  a  little  to  the  north  of  this  temple, 
the  traveller  presently  reaches  a  narrow  opening  in  the 
rocks  made  by  a  prehistoric  torrent  seeking  outlet  to  the 
Nile.  A  few  hundred  yards  farther  there  is  a  fork  in  this 
ancient  watercourse,  but  its  two  branches  run  behind  the 
Libyan  range,  roughly  parallel  to  each  other,  up  to  the 
heights  above  the  Valley  of  the  Assassif  in  the  midst  of  the 
Theban  necropolis.  Just  before  the  branch  nearer  to  the 
Nile  finds  its  abrupt  termination  in  a  steep  cliff,  its  sides 
are  pierced  by  some  three-and-twenty  rock  cut  passages  lead- 
ing to  tombs  of  New  Kingdom  kings,  while  in  the  second 
gorge  only  two  such  inscribed  tombs  have  been  discovered. 
Anciently  many  more  of  the  royal  sepulchres  were  still 
visible ;  Strabo  ^  mentions  some  forty  as  worthy  of  in- 
spection ;  but  now  the  entrances  are  in  part  hidden 
beneath  the  talus  which  has  fallen  from  the  weathered 
cliffs  into  the  valley  below,  and  are  not  likely  to  be  redis- 
covered, unless  by  accident.  J^deed  it  was  only  the  casual 
^  xvii.  46,  816. 

81  6 


82  PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

observation  that  a  rain  torrent  disappeared  into  the  cliffs 
instead  of  flowing  down  into  the  valley  which  led  to  the 
discovery  of  the  finest  tomb  among  them  all,  that  which 
was  the  resting  place  of  the  mummy  of  Seti  I. 

These  tombs  belong  to  the  XVIIIth,  XlXth,  and  XXth 
Dynasties.  From  the  entrance,  a  passage,  which  is  some- 
times stepped,  slopes  downwards  into  the  rock,  occasionally 
widening  into  chambers,  or  having  entrances  to  different 
rooms  hewn  in  its  walls,  but  keeping  the  same  general 
direction  and  at  length  reaching  the  large  chamber  con- 
taining the  royal  sarcophagus.  Further  chambers  may  be 
connected  with  the  sarcophagus  chamber,  or  sometimes  a 
blind  passage  only  may  be  prolonged  beyond  it.  The 
varying  plans  of  these  tombs  are  thus  accounted  for  :  a 
king  began  to  prepare  his  place  of  sepulture  on  his  acces- 
sion by  making  a  simple  passage  leading  to  a  sepulchral 
chamber  ;  but  if  his  life  was  spared  he  carried  on  the 
passage  to  a  second  chamber,  and  so  on,  until  his  death 
put  an  end  to  the  extensions.  And  in  this  way  the  tomb 
of  Seti  I.  attained  to  a  length  of  nearly  two  hundred  feet. 

The  walls  of  the  passages  and  chambers,  the  ceilings, 
and  the  sarcophagus  itself  were  adorned  with  scenes  and 
inscriptions    relating   exclusively   to    the   world    beyond.^ 

'  The  best  publications  of  these  scenes  and  inscriptions  are  : 
Lefebure,  Les  Hy;pogees  royaux  de  Thebes,  I.  7ombeau  de  Seti  I. ; 
II.  Notices  des  Hypogees ;  III.  Tombeau  de  Ramses  IV.  (Memoires 
de  la  Mission  Fran9aise  au  Caire,  ii.-iii.  2).  For  the  contents  of 
the  text  of.  Maspero,  Les  Hypogees  royaux  de  l^hebes,  in  Rev.  de 
Vhist.  des  ReL,  1888,  also  given  in  Etudes  de  Mythologie,  ii.,  pp.  i 
et  seq.  A  shorter  version  of  the  text  has  been  well  edited  from  the 
Berlin  and  Leyden  papyri,  with  commentary,  by  JEQUIER,  Le  livre 
de  ce  qu'il  y  a  dans  r Hades,  Paris,  1894. 


SEPULCHRAL    TEXTS.  83 

One  of  these  wall  texts,  that  of  the  Legend  of  the  Destruc- 
tion of  Mankind,  has  been  given  already ;  two  others,  the 
Negative  Confession  and  the  Funeral  Ritual,  will  call  for 
our  attention  when  we  come  to  consider  the  Osirian 
doctrine  of  Immortality.  Many  others  must  remain  un- 
noticed, such  as  the  litanies  to  the  Sun,^  seventy-five 
invocations  to  the  Sun  god  to  be  recited  "  at  evening 
when  Ra  is  made  'true  of  voice'  {mad  khef)  against  his 
enemies  in  the  Underworld,"  i.e.  formulas  to  be  used  when 
the  dying  Sun,  overcoming  all  obstacles,  enters  the  next 
world  as  a  blessed  god.  In  these  litanies  the  god  is 
invoked  by  all  manner  of  secret  titles,  incomprehensible 
without  detailed  commentary,  and  which  represent  him  as 
all  embracing  and  as  uniting  in  himself  the  most  various 
divine  functions.  Thus  they  testify  to  the  strong  influence 
of  syncretism  even  in  1300  B.C.  But  more  important  than 
these  litanies  for  the  understanding  of  the  Egyptian  religion 
are  the  two  extensive  texts  which  we  shall  now  proceed 
to  consider :  the  Book  of  Am  Dftat,  and  the  Book  of  the 
Gates. 

In  certain  of  the  tombs  which  we  have  described  the  text 
of  the  Book  of  Am  Duat,  "  of  that  which  is  in  the  Duat 
(or  Underworld),"  is  accompanied  by  scenes  representing 
the  divisions  of  the  next  world  and  its  inhabitants.  The 
text  was  also  inscribed  on  sarcophagi,  as  on  the  sarcophagus 
of  King  NekJit-Her-heb-t  (Nectanebus  I.,  died  about 
369  B.C.),  now  preserved  in  London.  It  was  written  also 
upon  papyrus,  especially  during  the  times  of  the  XXth 
— XXIInd  Dynasties,  and  in  this  form  copies  were 
'  Naville,  La  Litanie  du  Soleil,  Leipzig,  1875. 


84    PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

placed  in  the  graves  of  priests  and  priestesses  of  Amen. 
The  copies  which  have  come  down  to  us  fall  into  two 
classes,  one  class  consisting  of  those  which  give  the  com- 
plete text  and  all  its  scenes,  and  the  other  of  examples, 
generally  on  papyrus,  which  represent  the  first  to  the 
seventh  Hours  of  the  Night  by  a  short  epitome,  while  the 
remaining  five  are  given  at  length.  It  is  curious  that  the 
text  should  appear  in  both  the  perfect  and  abridged  forms 
in  the  tomb  of  Seti  I.  :  there  was  no  inherent  advantage 
in  so  giving  it,  the  duplication  is  simply  owing  to  the  in- 
difference of  Egyptian  scribes,  who  copied  out  the  various 
religious  texts  which  might  happen  to  be  at  their  disposal 
without  any  regard  to  the  contents,  and  hence  ran  the 
risk  of  giving  duplicate  texts  on  the  same  monument. 
Magnificent  as  was  the  tomb  of  Seti  I.,  there  is  no  order 
whatever  among  its  inscriptions  :  the  texts  belonging  to 
the  different  hours  do  not  follow  in  regular  progression, 
but  have  been  disposed  by  the  artist  according  to  his 
convenience  in  the  matter  of  space. 

In  these  texts  there  were  twelve  divisions  of  Duat,  and 
the  journey  of  the  night  Sun  through  each  of  them 
occupied  one  hour.  The  divisions  were  designated  fields 
cities,  or  dwellings,  and  each  was  entered  by  a  door.  They 
were  connected  by  a  river  running  through  their  midst, 
upon  which  the  Sun  god  in  his  bark  journeyed  from  West 
to  East ;  while  upon  its  banks  dwelt  all  manner  of  spirits 
and  demons.  The  scenes  relating  to  the  river  are  divided 
into  three  rows,  the  top  row  representing  the  right  bank, 
the  middle  one  the  stream,  and  the  third  the  left  bank. 
The  demons  themselves  are  far  from  homogeneous  ;  some 


DEMONS   OF   DUAT.  85 

were  ancient  gods,  while  others  were  later  personifications 
endowed  with  forms  adapted  to  the  qualities  which  it  was 
deemed  necessary  to  ascribe  to  them.  For  example,  some 
of  the  demons  were  represented  as  monkeys,  because 
it  was  their  function  to  worship  the  setting  sun  :  the 
Egyptians  having  noticed  how  monkeys  chattered  together 
at  sunset  took  this  to  be  an  expression  of  adoration  of  the 
Sun.  Others,  male  and  female,  stabbed  and  rent  the 
wicked,  and  therefore  carried  knives  and  lances  and  bore 
such  names  as  Denit,  "  she  who  cuts  "  ;  Nekit,  "  she  who 
tears  to  pieces  "  ;  Shesri,  "  the  piercer,"  etc.  Others  again 
owe  form  and  name  entirely  to  the  active  imagination  of 
the  Egyptians,  who  took  a  truly  Oriental  pleasure  in 
devising  the  impossible.  A  glance  at  the  Am  Duat  text 
will  show  that  almost  every  conceivable  combination  of 
the  animal  with  the  human  ,form  is  given  ;  yet  to  the 
Egyptian  all  these  creatures  were  really  existent,  and  he 
hoped,  or  rather  feared,  to  meet  them  after  death.  In 
these  fancies  the  dwellers  in  the  Nile  Valley  have  outdone 
all  other  nations  of  antiquity  of  which  we  have  record. 

In  its  shorter  and  more  comprehensible  version  the  work 
begins  with  the  words :  "  Beginning  of  the  Opening  of 
Auieiiti  (that  is  the  West,  and  hence  the  Underworld)  of 
the  limit  of  the  gathered  darkness  " — i.e.  of  the  Under- 
world, and  of  the  domain  into  which  darkness  retreats  and 
collects  during  the  day,  and  whence  it  threatens  to  break 
again  over  the  earth  so  soon  as  the  power  of  the  sun 
begins  to  flag. 

"  The  god  (the  Sun)  enters  from  the  earth,  from  the  Com- 
partment of  the  western  horizon.     A  hundred  and  twenty 


86  PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

dter{t  ^  must  be  traversed  in  this  Space  before  he  comes  to 
the  gods  of  Duat.  Net  Rd,  Stream  of  Ra,  is  the  name  of 
the  first  field  of  Duat.  Ra  allots  the  fields  of  the  territory 
to  the  gods  who  are  in  his  train.  He  begins  to  speak 
words  of  command,  ordaining  the  circumstances  of  the 
gods  of  Duat  as  regards  this  field.  If  a  man  represents 
this  according  to  the  appearance  which  is  in  the  Amenti 
of  Duat  {i.e.  if  the  condition  of  things  really  existent  in 
Duat  is  duly  portrayed),  and  knows  these  pictures  which 
are  the  semblance  of  the  great  god  himself,  then  shall  he 
(who  does  this)  be  luminous  upon  earth,  he  shall  be 
luminous  in  the  great  Duat.  UsJiemt  hdtu  kheftifi  Rd 
('  Destroyer  of  the  forefront  of  the  enemies  of  Ra ')  is  the 
name  of  this  first  hour  of  the  night  which  conducts  this 
great  god  in  this  Compartment." 

The  illustrated  version  gives  the  same  text  with  unim- 
portant modifications,  and  also  presents  us  with  a  view 
of  the  Compartment  traversed  by  the  Sun  during  the  first 
hour  of  the  night.  ,  A  stream  of  water  runs  through  the 
midst,  with  a  bark  floating  upon  it.  In  the  cabin  stands 
the  Sun  god,  with  a  sceptre  in  one  hand,  and  the  sign  of 
life  in  the  other ;  his  head  is  a  ram's  head  surmounted  by 
the  solar  disk.  This  god  is  Af  Rd,  "  flesh  of  Ra  " — not  Ra 
himself,  for  the  Sun  is  dead,  but  his  flesh  and  blood — for 
even  the  body  of  Ra  is  immortal.  The  sign  of  life  which  the 
figure  is  holding  represents  the  life  which  remains  to  him 
even  after  death.  The  sceptre  is  the  symbol  of  his  rule  over 
the  Underworld.     The  ram's  head  serves  to  show  that  he 

The  ater  was  a  linear  measure.    A  parallel  text  states  that  this 
division  was  309  dteri't  long  by  120  wide. 


J1.L1 


llilM 


I  ill 

iff  LJ 


FIRST   HOUR   OF   THE   NIGHT.  3/ 

is  not  simply  Ra  the  Sun  god,  who  is  always  represented 
as  hawk  headed,  but  that  he  is  here  manifest  in  his  Theban 
form  of  Amen  Ra,  whose  earthly  embodiment  was  a  ram. 
In  front  of  the  cabin  stands  Ap  Hat,  "  Opener  of  the 
Ways,"  a  form  of  Anubis,  whose  office  it  was  to  introduce 
the  soul  of  Ra  as  well  as  the  souls  of  departed  men  into 
the  Underworld.  Next  come  Sa,  the  god  of  taste  and 
knowledge,  and  the  figure  of  a  woman  crowned  with  the 
horns  of  a  cow  and  with  a  sun  disk.  She  is  designated 
Lady  of  the  Bark.  Behind  the  cabin  stand  the  hawk 
headed  god  Her  hekenu,  who  is  upon  this  journey  the 
representative  of  Ra ;  the  Ka  of  Shu  ;  Nehes,  "  the 
Watchman  "  ;  Hi^,  "  the  Striker  "  (?)  ;  and  the  steersman  of 
the  ship,  rudder  in  hand.  The  Ka  of  Shu,  that  is  the  Ka 
of  one  form  of  the  Sun  god,  is  thus  present ;  for  it,  no  less 
than  the  human  Ka,  must  descend  into  the  Underworld 
with  the  being  to  whom  it  belongs,  there  to  remain  with 
him  and  yet  to  lead  an  independent  existence. 

Twelve  divinities  precede  the  bark,  headed  by  the 
Watchman  of  the  Hours  with  his  knife  in  his  hand.  Be- 
hind them  comes  a  serpent,  and  behind  that  are  four 
chests,  each  surmounted  by  a  human  head  and  named 
respectively  the  Speech  of  Osiris,  of  Khepera,  of  Tum,  of 
Ra.  These  must  therefore  have  been  regarded  as  personi- 
fied words  of  the  four  deities,  existing  independently  of 
the  gods  themselves.  Next  is  the  great  Illuminator,  ram 
headed  and  obviously  a  form  of  the  Sun  god,  albeit 
detached  from  him.  Beyond  him  is  the  Sun's  faithful 
companion,  the  lioness  headed  goddess  Sekhet— or,  as  she 
is    here  called,  Sekhmet,  "she  who  is  exalted  "—followed 


88    PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

by  "  Him  who  Dwells  in  Amenti,"  the  mummiform  figure 
of  Osiris  wearing  the  crown  of  Upper  Egypt,  by  a  god  in 
human  likeness  armed  with  a  knife  and  entitled  "  Cutter 
in  pieces,"  and,  finally,  by  the  two  goddesses  of  Truth — 
Truth  and  Justice.  The  text  accompanying  these  scenes 
approximately  repeats  the  introductory  words,  with  only 
one  noteworthy  addition,  which  states  that  the  river  is 
Urnes,^  and  that  the  solar  bark  is  the  Sekti  bark.  At 
this  point  in  the  text  the  dimensions  of  this  division  of 
the  Underworld  are  estimated  at  220  dterU  in  width  by 
300  in  length,  a  variation  from  the  data  given  above 
which  shows  how  little  regard  for  consistency  the  Egyptians 
had  in  religious  matters.  It  may  be  that  these  dimensions 
had  been  differently  reckoned  by  the  writers,  and  that 
the  compilers  of  this  text  considered  it  better  to  place 
the  two  readings  side  by  side  rather  than  to  run  the 
risk  of  adopting  the  wrong  measurements  only. 

The  row  below  shows  those  who  awaited  the  god  and 
his  companions  in  the  Compartment  of  the  first  hour, 
and  accompanied  him  through  it,  remaining  behind,  how- 
ever, when  he  passed  on  to  the  next.  They  consist  of 
ten  divinities,  some  of  which  bear  serpents  as  sceptres, 
and  of  three  long  spotted  snakes.  Then  follows  a  bark 
in  the  midst  of  which  hovers  a  scarabaeus,  adored  as 
"  this  Ra  "  by  two  men,  each  of  whom  is  called  an  Osiris. 
The  scene  is  evidently  intended  to  represent  the  adoration 
of  the  Sun  by  the  dead.  The  line  of  inscription  above 
runs  somewhat  as  follows  :  "  This  god  traverses  this  Com- 

'  Urnes  has,  of  course,  no  connexion  whatever  with  the  Greek 
Uranos. 


FIRST   HOUR   OF   THE   NIGHT.  89 

partment  in  the  form  of  a  ram.  When  he  has  traversed  it, 
then  the  dead  who  are  in  his  train  do  not  rise  with  him 
(into  the  domains  of  the  other  hours)  ;  they  remain  in  this 
Compartment.  But  Ra  gives  command  (in  favour  of 
the  dead,  to  whom  he  grants  fields)  to  the  gods  who 
dwell  in  this  Compartment."  The  dead  to  whom  reference 
is  here  made  are  those  whose  souls  hastened  at  the 
moment  of  death  to  the  opening  in  the  western  heaven 
through  which  Ra  enters  into  the  Underworld.  Thus 
far  they  had  followed  in  the  train  of  the  god,  but  here 
their  journey  ended,  and  only  those  specially  favoured  ones 
who  knew  the  Book  of  that  which  is  in  Duat  might 
enter  the  solar  bark  and  proceed  with  the  Sun  god.  The 
rest  remained  behind,  not  even  Ra  himself  having  power 
to  take  them  along  with  him. 

On  the  left  bank  of  Urnes  squatted  nine  cynocephali, 
"porters  for  this  great  soul,"  beings  who,  so  soon  as  the 
Sun  had  reached  the  West,  opened  to  him  the  gates  of  the 
Compartment  of  the  first  hour.  Each  of  them  is  named 
by  name  :  "  Opener  of  the  Earth,"  "  Soul  of  the  Earth," 
"  Heart  of  the  Earth,"  "  Double  Heart  of  the  Earth," 
"  He  who  beholdeth  Ra,"  etc.  Then  come  twelve  goddesses, 
"  those  who  extol  upon  earth  " — that  is,  who  offer  hymns 
of  praise  to  the  god  at  the  moment  of  his  leaving  earth 
and  entering  the  Underworld.  Their  names  are  those 
of  the  twelve  hours  of  the  day  who  take  leave  of  Ra  and 
return  to  the  eastern  sky,  there  to  await  the  new  Sun. 
Beyond  these  are  nine  squatting  gods — three  human, 
three  jackal,  and  three  hawk  headed — "  the  gods  who 
adore  Ra  "  ;  and  with  them  are  twelve  goddesses,  "  they 


90  PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

who  lead  the  Great  God."  The  latter  are  shown  by  their 
names  to  be  the  twelve  hours  of  the  night  who  now 
supersede  the  hours  of  the  day  in  the  guidance  of  the 
Sun. 

On  the  right  bank  of  Urnes  are,  first,  other  nine 
cynocephali,  "  they  who  speak  the  praises  of  Ra  "  ;  then 
come  twelve  uraei  spitting  forth  fire  to  lighten  the  gloom 
of  the  Underworld.  They  are  "  the  goddesses  who 
lighten  the  darkness  in  Duat."  The  nine  men  following 
them  ''■  extol  the  lord  of  the  cycle  of  the  gods,"  i.e.  Ra, 
and  the  twelve  goddesses  who  accompany  them  "give 
praises  to  Ra  when  he  traverses  Urnes." 

Here  ends  the  description  of  the  first  Compartment 
of  the  Underworld.  When  Ra  has  traversed  the  length 
of  it,  a  door  is  opened  at  the  end,  and  he  enters  into  the 
domain  of  the  second  hour  of  the  night,  still  continuing 
his  way  upon  the  river  Urnes.  The  divinities  who 
accompany  him  in  his  bark  are,  generally  speaking,  the 
same  throughout  the  journey,  but  the  attendant  beings 
who  are  not  on  board,  and  especially  the  demons  of  both 
banks,  change  continually.  It  is  needless  to  examine 
them  one  by  one  ;  the  description  of  the  first  hour  may 
serve  to  show  after  what  fashion  his  Duat  was  pictured 
to  himself  by  the  Egyptian.  Only  in  one  respect  was 
there  any  important  change  as  the  god  advanced  from 
hour  to  hour  :  the  number  of  the  demons  was  hourly 
greater,  while  they  were  represented  as  more  and  more 
fantastic  in  appearance,  and  composite  human  and  animal 
forms  increasingly  abounded.  All  had  their  names,  which 
the  deceased  Egyptian  was  supposed  to  know  by  heart  ; 


RA   AND   THE   DEAD.  9 1 

in  case  he  had  failed  to  learn  them  he  must  be  provided 
with  a  papyrus  from  which  to  read  them  ;  unless,  indeed, 
he  had  been  careful  during  life  to  have  the  guidebook 
to  Duat  inscribed  upon  the  walls  of  his  tomb,  as  was 
done  by  Seti  I. 

x'\s  in  the  domain  of  the  first  hour,  so  in  each  division 
of  the  Underworld,  Ra  left  behind  some  of  his  companions 
whom  he  had  brought  with  him  from  the  earth  above, 
making  them  grants  of  land  to  cultivate.  In  thus  hand- 
ing over  territory  to  his  followers  as  a  reward  for  services 
rendered,  and  as  encouragement  to  future  loyalty,  Ra 
only  acted  after  the  manner  in  which  earthly  kings  were 
wont  to  recompense  their  faithful  subjects.  The  Pharaoh 
was  constrained  to  this  course  as  a  means  of  preventing 
the  separatist  tendencies,  which  were  never  wholly  subdued 
among  the  Egyptians,  from  issuing  in  rebellion,  and 
also  to  secure  for  himself  loyal  and  devoted  dependents 
in  each  of  the  nomes.  And  in  the  same  way  Ra  acted 
in  his  own  interest,  for  although  he  gave  light  on  his 
way  to  the  dwellers  in  the  Underworld,  he  could  not 
unaided  conquer  the  demons  of  darkness.  To  that  end 
he  needed  allies,  and  these  he  found  not  only  in  a  succes- 
sion of  the  good  demons  of  Duat,  but  also  in  the  dead 
whom  he  had  established  in  the  place,  and  who  were 
bound  to  the  land  even  as  earthly  vassals  to  the  estates 
with  which  they  were  invested.  Here  they  awaited  Ra  their 
lord  to  help  him  against  the  Apep  serpent,  the  symbol  of 
darkness.  In  some  parts  of  the  text  Osiris  is  treated  as 
interchangeable  with  Ra  ;  other  references  show  that  the 
two   were   distinguished,   Osiris    being    regarded    as    the 


92    PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

permanent  lord  of  the  dead  in  Duat.  These  contradictions 
testify  to  the  fact  that  it  was  no  longer  a  homogeneous 
doctrine  that  was  embodied  in  these  texts,  but  that  in 
them  we  have  a  fusion  of  distinct  theories.  This  is  further 
made  evident  by  the  introduction,  here  and  there,  of  yet 
another  heterogeneous  deity  in  the  person  of  Sokaris,  to 
whom  were  specially  ascribed  the  domains  of  the  fourth 
and  fifth  hours.  On  his  journey  through  the  last  of  the 
Compartments  Ra  met  the  scarabaeus  Khepera,  the  god  of 
the  new  morning  Sun,  who  thereupon  embarked  with  the 
dead  god  of  the  Sun  of  yesterday  to  give  him  escort  as 
far  as  the  eastern  horizon,  where  his  own  reign  would 
begin. 

The  sixth  and  seventh  Compartments  were  especially 
dedicated  to  Osiris.  In  the  first  of  them  were  many 
beings  connected  with  the  Osirian  myth  :  Isis,  the  ibis  ;  a 
Horus  ;  and  various  manifestations  of  Osiris  himself.  Here 
in  a  large  room  dwelt  the  kings  of  Upper  Egypt,  the  rich 
in  offerings — that  is,  the  wealthy,  to  whom  their  survivors 
made  many  offerings— the  kings  of  Lower  Egypt,  and  the 
glorified  spirits.  To  them  the  god  assured  the  possession 
of  their  fields,  the  continued  exercise  of  dominion,  the 
power  to  use  the  magic  formulas  which  they  had  learned, 
and  the  personal  enjoyment  of  the  offerings  made  to  them. 
In  the  seventh  hour  the  serpent  Mehen,  "  the  Enfolder," 
coiled  round  the  cabin  of  Ra  ;  and  now  came  the  sharpest 
part  of  the  conflict  against  the  Apep  serpent,  which  was 
at  length  overcome  and  pierced  with  knives,  while  at  the 
incantations  of  Isis  the  sun  bark  proceeded  self-impelled 
upon   its  way.     Here  in    the  seventh  Compartment  were 


THE   LAST   HOURS   OF   THE   NIGHT.  93 

four  chests  partly  filled  with  sand,  but  also  containing  the 
forms  of  Turn,  Khepera,  Ra,  and  Osiris.  Being  talismans 
of  extraordinary  efficacy  in  the  next  world,  which  would 
seem  to  have  appeared  to  the  help  of  Ra  at  his  call,  each 
was  guarded  by  a  goddess  armed  with  a  knife.  Near 
by  were  serpents  which  cast  forth  flames  against  the  foes 
of  Osiris  and  devoured  the  souls  of  his  enemies  ;  stellar 
divinities  and  gods  of  the  hours  were  there  also. 

In  the  ninth  Compartment  twelve  uraei  spat  out 
fire  to  light  the  path  of  Ra  so  long  as  he  might  tarry 
there  ;  as  soon  as  he  had  passed  on  they  devoured  and 
reabsorbed  the  flames,  again  to  cast  them  up  at  the  end  of 
twenty-three  hours.  Their  fires  struck  down  the  enemies 
of  Ra,  and  they  lived  upon  the  blood  of  such  as  they 
slew  daily.  The  tenth  Compartment  chiefly  contained 
water,  and  aquatic  creatures,  and  here  the  scene  gives  a 
representation  of  the  birth  of  Khepera,  thus  contradicting 
the  above  mentioned  assignment  of  his  first  appearance 
to  the  fifth  hour.  A  secret  way  led  from  the  eleventh 
Compartment  to  Sais,  and  was  guarded  by  two  forms  of 
the  goddess  Neith,  one  wearing  the  crown  of  Upper  and 
the  other  the  crown  of  Lower  Egypt.  Neith  of  Sais  being 
accounted  the  mother  of  Ra,  this  road  was  doubtless 
intended  to  provide  her  with  the  means  of  reaching  the 
Underworld  from  her  own  city  and  here  giving  birth  to  the 
Sun  god.  Near  by  it  were  great  fires  in  which  the  enemies 
of  Ra  were  consumed  under  the  supervision  of  Horus.  In 
the  twelfth  and  last  Compartment  the  new  Sun  at  length 
appears  in  his  earthly  form  ;  he  attains  new  life,  and  is 
uplifted  at  the  horizon  by  the  god  Shu  ;  and  with  him  go 


94  PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

forth  into  the  light  of  day  those  souls  of  the  dead  who  had 
succeeded  by  means  of  their  knowledge  of  magic  formulas 
in  remaining  in  the  sun  bark  and  therein  traversing  the 
whole  of  Duat ;  henceforth  they  are  to  remain  for  ever 
with  Ra,  inseparable  from  him  and  yet  without  loss  of 
individuality. 

^  The  idea  of  immortality  and  of  the  world  to  come  pre- 
sented in  this  text  is  altogether  peculiar  to  it.  The  doctrine 
centres  in  the  dead  god  Ra,  yet  parts  of  doctrines  belonging 
to  the  cults  of  Sokaris  and  Osiris  are  blended  with  it. 
But  this  Osiris  is  not  the  Osiris  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead, 
whom  we  shall  consider  later  ;  he,  as  also  Sokaris,  is  here 
a  Sun  god,  sometimes  apprehended  as  a  secondary  form  of 
Ra,  and  sometimes  as  ruler  of  a  portion  of  the  Underworld 
of  which  the  whole  belongs  to  Ra.  This  doctrine  indeed 
taught  that  immortality  was  the  lot  of  all  men,  but  also 
that  only  the  friend  of  Ra  could  look  forward  to  possessing 
fields  in  Duat,  the  produce  of  which  should  ensure  him 
against  hunger.  For  one  hour  daily  would  he  behold  the 
Sun,  but  the  rest  of  the  time  he  was  plunged  in  darkness, 
which  at  best  was  only  lightened  by  fire  spitting 
serpents,  or  by  the  sea  of  flame  in  which  the  enemies  of 
Ra  were  consumed.  Shouting  for  joy,  he  greeted  the  light 
at  the  appearance  of  his  god  ;  but  his  joy  was  short :  at  the 
end  of  one  hour  the  door  was  closed  behind  his  lord,  and 
he  again  was  left  in  darkness.  Such  was  the  lot  even  of 
kings  and  of  the  rich  and  great,  except  that  in  their  case 
it  was  ameliorated  inasmuch  as  they  obtained  their  food 
without  labour.  Few  were  those  who  remained  for  ever 
with  the  Sun,  and  they  were  not  necessarily  the  great  ones 


BOOK   OF   THE   GATES.  95 

of  the  earth,  nor  yet  the  very  good,  but  those  who 
possessed  the  most  minute  information  as  to  the  next 
world  and  who  were  best  versed  in  magic.  Thus  the 
whole  doctrine  is  based  on  a  belief  in  the  power  of  magic  : 
by  magic  only  could  demons  be  worsted  and  everlasting 
bliss  be  won  ;  the  idea  of  attaining  to  it  by  the  virtuous 
conduct  of  earthly  life  is  altogether  in  the  background  : 
the  one  thing  needful  in  this  respect  was — not  to  have 
been  in  life  an  enemy  of  Ra. 

The  second  work  found  in  the  tombs  of  the  kings 
dealing  with  the  progress  of  the  Sun  through  the  Under- 
world—the Book  of  the  Gates — in  the  main  corresponds 
to  the  above,  especially  in  its  presentation  of  the  life  of  the 
dead  as  that  of  dwellers  in  a  darkness  penetrated  by  the 
light  of  the  Sun  for  but  one  hour  in  the  twenty-four.  It 
has,  however,  supplied  one  omission  of  the  Am  Duat  text 
by  embodying  the  judgment  of  Osiris  on  the  righteous  and 
the  wicked.  The  scene  of  this  is  a  hall  situate  between 
the  fifth  and  sixth  hours,  and  here  Osiris  is  seated  upon  his 
throne,  upon  the  steps  of  which  are  the  nine  gods  forming 
the  Osirian  cycle.  In  front  of  Osiris  stand  the  scales  in 
which  a  man  is  weighed  against  his  deeds,  and  beyond 
stands  Anubis,  who  is  here  present  as  spectator  only, 
although,  according  to  the  Osirian  rituat,  it  was  his  office 
to  conduct  the  dead  into  the  hall  of  judgment.  The 
accompanying  text  states  that  all  the  enemies  of  Osiris 
are  overthrown  and  destroyed,  and  this  destruction  is 
illustrated  by  a  scene  representing  the  god  Thoth  in  a 
small  bark  as  a  cynocephalus  armed  with  a  stick,  and 
driving  forth  from  the  hall  and  from  the  fellowship  of  the 


96    PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

righteous  a  hog  which  is  called  the  "  Devourer  of  the 
Arm,"  and  which  stands  for  Set,  the  enemy  of  Osiris. 

The  sixth  hour  displays  the  outcome  of  the  judgment 
scene  :  the  righteous  are  at  work  in  their  fields,  while, 
bound  to  stakes,  the  wicked  are  awaiting  a  punishment  by 
fire  and  water  which  follows  partially  in  the  eighth  hour. 
The  agricultural  scenes  recall  in  many  ways  the  Fields  of 
Aalu  of  the  Osirian  creed  ;  but  Aalu  was  flooded  with 
light,  while  here  there  was  little  or  none. 

A  similar  melancholy  conception  of  the  life  after  death 
is  set  forth  in  isolated  texts  as  well  as  in  the  Book  of 
the  Gates  ;  but  in  many  ways  it  differs  from  that  of 
the  latter,  and  is  not  without  affinity  to  Greek  feeling  on 
the  subject,  picturing  the  life  of  the  dead  as  a  mere 
shadowy  existence.  In  the  inscription  on  a  stela  dating 
from  the  time  of  Cleopatra,  and  preserved  in  the  British 
Museum,'  a  dead  woman  thus  calls  upon  her  husband  : 
"  O  my  brother,  my  husband,  cease  not  to  drink  and  to 
eat,  to  be  drunken,  to  enjoy  the  love  of  women,  to  make 
holiday.  Follow  thy  desire  by  night  and  by  day  ;  grant 
care  no  place  in  thine  heart.  For  as  for  Amenti  it  is  a 
land  of  sleep  and  of  darkness,  a  dwelling  wherein  those 
who  are  there  remain.  They  sleep  in  their  mummy  forms, 
they  nevermore  awake  to  see  their  fellows,  they  behold 
neither  their  fathers  nor  their  mothers,  their  heart  is 
careless    of   their   wives    and    children.      On    earth    each 


'  Published  by  Sharpe,  Egyptian  Inscriptions,  i.  4;  Prisse, 
Montanetits,  pi.  xxvi.,  bis  ;  Lepsius,  Auswahl,  pi.  xvi. ;  Reinisch, 
Chrest.,  i.,^pl-  20 :  cf.  Renouf,  Religion,  pp.  242  et  seq.\ 
Maspero,  Etudes  Egyptiennes,  \.,  p.  187. 


/^rs^^^j^^i^T^MSSSM^^^'^'^-^^ 


BOOK   OF   THE   GATES.  97 

tasteth  of  the  water  of  life,  but  I  suffer  thirst.  Water 
Cometh  to  him  who  is  upon  earth,  but  I  thirst  after  the 
water  that  is  by  me.  Since  I  came  unto  this  valley  I 
know  not  where  I  am.  I  long  for  the  water  that  floweth 
by  me.  1  desire  the  breeze,  on  the  bank  of  the  river, 
that  it  may  refresh  my  heart  in  its  distress.  For  the 
name  of  the  god  who  ruleth  here  is  '  Utter  Death,'  At  his 
call,  trembling  with  fear,  all  men  come  unto  him.  He 
maketh  no  distinction  between  gods  and  men  ;  before  him 
the  great  are  as  the  small.  He  showeth  no  favour  to 
him  who  loveth  him ;  he  snatcheth  the  child  from  its 
mother,  and  the  old  man  also.  None  cometh  to  worship 
him,  for  he  is  not  gracious  unto  them  who  adore  him  ;  he 
regardeth  not  him  who  presenteth  him  with  offerings." 

The  Book  of  the  Gates  begins  with  a  description  of  the 
Sun's  entrance  into  the  Underworld.  In  his  bark,  and  in 
the  form  of  a  disk  round  which  a  serpent  is  coiled,  the 
Sun  god  approaches  a  valley  bounded  by  two  high  sand- 
hills. On  one  of  the  banks  is  a  standard  with  the  head 
of  a  ram,  and  on  the  other  a  standard  with  the  head  of 
a  jackal  ;  for  in  the  Underworld  the  god  will  bear  the 
head  of  a  ram,  while  the  jackal  is  symbolic  of  Anubis, 
his  guide  thither.  Before  each  standard  kneel  two  genii 
— the  genius  of  Duat,  and  the  genius  of  the  hills  of  earth, 
i.e.  of  the  regions  of  which  the  boundaries  meet  at  the 
gates  of  the  Underworld.  The  valley  is  closed  by  a 
simple  door,  which  at  a  conjuration  opens  to  Ra,  who 
through  it  enters  the  domain  of  the  first  hour  in  ram 
headed  form.  The  demons  are  fully  described  here  as  in 
the  other  divisions,  and  throughout  all  the  scenes  flows  the 

7 


98    PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 


FIG.    17.  —  GATE    IN    THE    UNDERWORLD. 

(maspero,   "  e'tudes  de  mythologie,"  II.   167.) 
XlXth  Dynasty. 

same  river,  on  which  the  Sun  travels  accompanied  by  his 
companions  ;  while  right  and  left  upon  its  sandy  banks 
stand  the  spirits.      But  although  the  general  arrangements 


DIFFERENT   IDEAS   OF   THE   UNDERWORLD.  99 

correspond  to  those  of  the  Am  Duat  text,  yet  details,  names 
of  demons,  scenes,  and  texts  are  different  throughout.  On 
similar  foundations  we  have  an  altogether  different  super- 
structure. Two  distinct  conceptions  of  the  next  world 
had  been  formed  by  the  Egyptians,  and  they  found  it  so 
difficult  to  choose  between  them  that  both  were  sometimes 
represented  in  the  same  tomb. 

To  begin  with— the  divisions  between  the  twelve  hourly 
spaces   of  the   night   are   of  a   different   kind.     In  "Am 
Duat "  a  simple  door  suffices ;  in  the  second  text,  except 
for  the  first  hour,  we  have  veritable  fortifications.     Each 
division  is  bounded    by  a  wall  in  which  a  single  narrow 
opening  leads  into  a   passage  between  two   battlemented 
walls,  and  the  passage  bends  at  a  right  angle  in    order 
further  to  increase  the  difficulty  of  forcing  an  entry.     This 
method  of  construction  may  be  actually  seen  in  Egyptian 
fortifications  still  extant.     At  each  end  of  the  passage  is 
a  mummiform  figure,  and  at  the  corner  there  hangs  over 
from  either  side  a  serpent  spitting  forth  flames  which  flow 
in  a  fiery  stream  along  the  road.     Besides  these  there  are 
also  nine  gods  standing  with  their  backs  against  the  wall 
to  defend    it.      Only  by  means  of  conjurations  could  Ra 
himself  pass   through;    but   when    these   were   duly   pro- 
nounced by  his  conductor  the  mummiform  figures  opened 
their  arms  to  him,  the  serpents  ceased  to  spit  forth  flames, 
and  the  great  serpent  keeping  watch  over  the  gate  at  the 
end  of  the  passage  gave  him  entrance  into  the  next  hour. 
Scarcely  had  Ra  passed  before  the  demons  were  again  on 
guard  as  before.     Yet  notwithstanding  all  these  defensive 
measures  the  god  was  never  in  safety  :  everywhere  enemies 


lOO  PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

met  him,  and  especially  the  Apep  serpent,  which  he  was 
bound  to  conquer. 

And,  finally,  the  conclusion  of  this  text  claims  attention 


FIG.    l8. — NU    UPLIFTING    THE    SUN    BARK    AT    THE    END    OF    THE    NIGHT. 

(bONOMI    and    SHARPE,    PL.    XV.) 

Sarcophagus  of  Seti  II. 

as  dealing  with  the  birth  of  the  new  Sun  in  far  more  detail 
than   does   the   "Am    Duat."     When  at   the  end   of   the 


FUSION   OF   SOLAR   AND   OSIRIAN    CULTS.  lOI 

twelfth  hour  the  last  door  had  swung  to,  then  there  was 
great   mourning  among  the  souls  who  dwell  in    Amenti 
and  remain  behind  in  darkness.     But  Isis  and  Nephthys, 
each  in  the  form  of  a  uraeus,  sit  by  the  gates  to  protect 
the  young  Sun  god,  even   as  they  protected    Horus   the 
son    of   Isis.     Before   them    stretches    Nu,   the   primeval 
water,  from  which,  as  one  myth  tells  us,  all  things  came 
forth.     From  this  Ra  too  must  rise,  and  to  effect  his  rising 
the  god  of  the  water  uplifts  him  together  with  his  Madet 
bark.     Ra  is  in  the  midst  of  the  bark,  and  beside  him  stand 
Isis  and    Nephthys  as  his  guardians,  while  aft  are  Seb, 
Shu,  the  god  Hek   who  knows  the  magic  formulas,  and 
two  steersmen.     Forward  are  the  three  porters  who  have 
opened  the  gates  of  day,  and  who  will  open  also  the  various 
doors  of  the  upper  heaven.     Nut,  goddess  of  the  day  sky, 
reaches   from   the   other   side   to   receive   the    Sun.     She 
stands  upon  a  figure  which  by  touching  its  head  with  its 
feet   forms   a  circle   and    is  designated    the   "  Osiris   who 
encloses    Duat,"   the   whole   arrangement   signifying    that 
the  day  sky  is   here  uplifted    above   the   night   sky,    the 
realm  of  Nut  above  that  of  Osiris. 

As  we  have  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  observe, 
the  doctrine  contained  in  these  texts  is  no  longer  pure  ;  it 
comprises  much  that  had  been  borrowed  from  the  Osirian 
teaching  and  which  was  of  independent  origin.  This 
influence  was  reciprocal.  In  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  the 
text  book  of  the  Osirian  faith,  we  are  continually  beset 
by  passages  and  allusions  which,  strictly  speaking,  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  fundamental  cult,  and  are  indeed 
often  in  direct  contradiction  to  its  dogmas;    these  are  in 


102    PASSAGE  OF  THE  SUN  THROUGH  THE  UNDERWORLD. 

many  instances  taken  from  texts  relating  to  the  passage  of 
the  Sun  through  the  Underworld.  Thus  in  Chapter  XV. 
of  the  Book  of  the  Dead  we  find  reference  to  the  Duat 
which  Ra  enlightens,  the  appearance  of  the  Apep  serpent, 
together  with  other  indications  of  a  prevalent  syncretic 
tendency. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

nr^HE  Egyptian  temple  was  dedicated,  as  a  rule,  to  a 
-^  single  deity,  who  inhabited  the  sanctuary  in  corporate 
form  ;  to  him  the  chief  offerings  were  made,  and  in  his 
honour  the  great  local  festivals  were  celebrated.  This  is 
clearly  set  forth  by  the  inscriptions  on  the  walls.  But 
these  same  inscriptions  make  it  evident  that  the  god  was 
not  regarded  as  standing  alone  ;  in  almost  every  case 
divine  honours  were  also  paid  to  his  companion  deities,  the 
6eol  avvvaoL  of  the  Greeks.  These,  generally,  were  con- 
nected with  the  great  god  of  the  temple  by  close  bonds 
of  relationship,  and,  together  with  him,  formed  a  cycle  of 
divinities.  The  cycle  being  usually  three  in  number  the 
so  called  triads  arose,  which  generally  consisted  of  two 
gods  and  one  goddess  ;  the  goddess  being  the  wife  of  the 
chief  god,  and  the  third  member  of  the  triad  being  their 
son.  The  son  was  the  counterpart  of  the  father,  and 
destined  to  replace  him  when  he  should  grow  old  and  die, 
according  to  that  law  of  nature  to  which  even  the  gods 
were  subject.  Thus  the  son  became  the  father,  and  the 
Egyptian  texts  could  speak  of  the  gods  as  eternal  ;  for  so 
soon  as  the  elder  god  vanished  he  would  be  succeeded  by 


104  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

a  divine  personality  precisely  similar.  In  this  sense  also 
the  god  was  self  begotten,  being  father  to  the  son  who 
was  as  himself ;  and  he  was  "  the  husband  of  his  mother  " 
in  that,  after  the  death  of  his  father,  he  had  entered  upon 
all  rights  as  regards  the  goddess  of  the  triad,  and  was  in 
his  turn  by  her  the  father  of  the  new  divine  son  who 
should  one  day  replace  him.  This  scheme  of  functions 
provided  not  only  for  the  unfailing  continuance  of  the 
divinity,  but  also  for  the  independent  existence  of  each  of 
the  divine  individualities  by  means  of  which  it  was  carried 
on.  It  is  complete  in  all  its  parts  except  as  regards  the 
goddess ;  for,  a  priori,  she  also  would  grow  old,  and  pass 
away,  and  be  superseded.  No  explanation  of  this  omission 
is  given  in  Egyptian  doctrine  ;  it  must  be  accepted  as 
arising  from  the  fact  that  the  part  assigned  in  the  divine 
world  to  the  goddess  of  a  triad  is  in  general  very  insig- 
nificant. She  brings  forth  the  young  god  and  she  brings 
him  up,  but  she  has  no  defined  personality.  This  is  the 
case  with  almost  all  the  Egyptian  goddesses :  they  are,  as 
a  rule,  unnoticed  in  tlie  myths  and  neglected  in  the  cults ; 
the  inscriptions,  generally  speaking,  simply  give  their 
names  and  designate  them  mothers,  nurses,  guardians, 
without  adding  the  mention  of  any  characteristic  traits, 
Isis  is  an  exception,  but  she  is  scarcely  to  be  classed 
among  the  goddesses  of  the  triads. 

A  triad  of  the  kind  just  described  was  formed  at  Thebes, 
for  instance,  by  Amen,  Mut,  and  KhCmsu  ;  at  Memphis 
by  Ptah,  Sekhet,  and  Imuthes ;  at  Kom  Ombo  by  Sebak, 
Hathor,  and  Khunsu  ;  but  in  some  places  the  triad  was  of 
another   kind.     In  certain   temples  where  the  chief  deity 


THE   TRIAD— THE   ENNEAD.  I05 

was  without  traditional  family,  it  was  still  considered 
desirable  to  worship  him  in  conjunction  with  two  of  the 
more  important  local  divinities,  even  although  the  three 
formed  a  triad  in  number  only  and  not  in  relationship. 
Thus,  for  example,  the  triad  of  the  cataract  district 
groups  the  goddesses  Sati  and  Anuki  with  the  god 
Khnum  simply  because  they  were  two  of  the  chief  deities 
of  that  vicinity,  and  it  was  therefore  expedient  that  they 
should  be  worshipped  in  its  temple. 

The  triad  appears  to  have  been  the  earlier  outcome  of 
the  effort  after  a  systematic  grouping  of  the  deities. 
Later  it  was  expanded  into  an  ennead — a  cycle  of  nine 
deities  ;  ^  but  the  members  of  an  ennead  were  united  rather 
by  reasons  of  state  than  of  kinship,  the  chief  god  being 
lord  and  king,  while  the  other  deities  formed  his  court, 
assisted  him  in  the  government  of  the  world,  and  therefore 
participated  in  the  honours  that  were  paid  him.  The 
conception  of  the  ennead  is  also  very  ancient,  but  the 
expression  early  lost  its  numerical  significance  and  became 
generally  equivalent  to  a  cycle  of  gods.  In  the  tales  it  is 
said  that  the  god  went  forth  with  his  divine  nine  when 
the  statement  means  simply  that  he  was  accompanied  by 
his  court ;  and  from  several  texts  in  which  the  ennead  is 
specified  it  is  clear  that  the  members  of  the  ennead  referred 
to  were  eight  only.^ 

Some  of  the  temples  had  two  enneads — "  the  great  and 

*  On  the  formation  of  the  ennead  see  particularly  Maspero,  Siir 
VEnneade,  in  Rev.  de  rHistoire  des  Religions,  1892,  or  Etudes  de 
Mythologie,  ii.,  pp.  337  et  seq. 

2  Cf.  Lepsius,  Ueber  die  Goiter  der  vier  Elemente,  in  Ab- 
handlimgen  of  the  Berlin  Academy,  1858,  pp.  227  et  seq. 


I06  THE   CHIEF  DEITIES. 

the  small,"  a  higher  and  a  lower — and  enneads  were  even 
occasionally  spoken  of  in  the  plural  to  denote  the  totality 
of  divine  beings.  As  a  rule  there  is  no  evidence  that 
the  selection  of  the  gods  of  an  ennead  was  dictated  by 
any  profound  philosophy  :  its  members  were  simply  the 
principal  national  deities  headed  by  the  god  of  the  nome 
in  question.  There  was  perhaps  one  exception,  however, 
in  the  ennead  of  Heliopolis,  which  occasionally  influenced 
the  formation  of  the  ennead  in  other  cities  also.  But  it  is 
difficult  to  determine  whether  the  processes  of  thought 
exhibited  in  the  Heliopolitan  ennead  were  operative  in  its 
original  constitution  or  imported  during  the  course  of 
subsequent  systematizing.  In  Heliopolis  Tum-Ra  was 
held  to  be  the  creator  of  the  world,  from  him  came  forth 
Shu  and  Tefnut,  and  of  this  pair  were  born  Seb  and  Nut, 
who  were  the  parents  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  Set  and  Nephthys. 
The  chief  function  of  Shu  was  to  separate  the  heavens 
from  the  earth  (Nut  from  Seb),  in  order  to  provide  the  path 
for  the  sun  (Ra).  When  this  was  accomplished  there 
appeared  upon  earth  Nile  and  desert,  life  and  death,  good 
and  evil,  these  contrasts  being  personified  in  Osiris  and 
Set.  The  creator  had  no  consort,  and  of  and  by  himself 
all  his  acts  of  creation  were  performed  ;  but  the  other 
members  of  the  Great  Ennead  were  grouped  in  pairs  as 
god  and  goddess,  and  from  the  first  pair,  Shu  and  Tefnut, 
the  rest  proceeded.  The  members  of  the  Lesser  Ennead 
of  Heliopolis  (Horus  son  of  Isis,  Thoth,  Maat,  and  others) 
seem  to  have  been  specially  concerned  with  the  civil  and 
moral  organization  of  mankind  ;  but  in  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge  it  is  impossible  to  form  any  trustworthy 


AMEN,   MUT,   AND   KHCiNSU.  10/ 

conception  of  the  way  in  which  their  several  functions 
came  to  be  assigned  to  them. 

It  often  happened  that  gods  of  the  same  attributes 
were  grouped  together  in  the  same  cycle  :  the  absurdity 
involved  in  this  was  avoided  by  the  expedient  of  allowing 
them  to  have  reigned  in  succession,  as  did  the  Pharaohs, 
attributing  to  each  in  turn  the  title  of  King  of  Upper  and 
Lower  Egypt.  Thus,  according  to  Heliopolitan  tradition, 
Atmu  (Tum)  was  succeeded  by  Ra,  Shu,  Seb,  Osiris,  Set, 
and  Horus,  while  in  Memphis  Ptah,  and  in  Thebes  Amen 
Ra  was  considered  as  the  founder  of  the  divine  dynasty. 
The  new  dogma  did  not  find  extended  approval,  for  this 
pretended  succession  in  the  supremacy  left  untouched  the 
main  difficulty  presented  by  the  Egyptian  faith,  which 
regarded  the  gods  as  eternally  capable  of  exerting  their 
several  activities  at  any  moment.  Hence  the  dogma  was 
confined  to  certain  schools  of  the  priests  and  never  pervaded 
the  beliefs  of  the  people. 

It  is  obvious  that  among  the  countless  deities  of  the 
inscriptions  we  can  here  consider  only  those  of  which  most 
frequent  mention  is  made  in  the  texts,  and  which  were 
looked  upon  as  chief  by  the  Egyptians  themselves  ;  even 
as  regards  these,  only  what  is  most  salient  can  be  noticed. 
An  account  of  all  the  Egyptian  deities  and  the  discussion 
of  their  functions  and  attributes  would  fill  volumes. 

Amen,  Mut,  and  Khunsu  formed  the  triad  of  Thebes. 
This  city,  the  Diospolis  of  the  Greeks,  was  the  capital  of 
Egypt  during  nearly  the  whole  of  the  period  from  the  Xlth 
Dynasty  until  far  on  in  the  times  of  the  New  Kingdom  ; 
and  from  it  proceeded  the  greatest  and  most  warlike  kings 


I08  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

of  the  land.  Its  temples  and  tombs  have  furnished  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  the  material  now  at  the  service  of 
Egyptian  research.  Thus  we  are  in  possession  of  a  long 
series  of  texts  relating  to  the  worship  of  the  Theban  deities  ; 
but  we  must  carefully  guard  against  the  conclusion  that 
the  abundance  of  these  texts  argues  the  general  predomin- 
ance of  Amen  in  Egypt.  The  Theban  Pharaohs  did 
indeed  seek  to  introduce  the  cult  of  their  god  throughout 
the  v/hole  realm,  and  in  so  far  succeeded  that  he  was 
admitted  into  many  of  the  great  sanctuaries ;  nevertheless 
it  was  not  as  principal  god  that  he  was  so  received,  and  he 
took,  usually,  minor  rank  beside  the  local  deities. 

According  to  the  received  explanation  in  the  time  of 
the  New  Kingdom,  the  name  of  the  god,  Amen,  signifies 
"  The  Hidden  One."  In  the  pure  and  simple  form  of 
Am€n  he  appears  but  seldom  in  the  texts,  where  he  is 
rather  represented  as  a  sun  god  in  the  composite  form  of 
Amen  Ra.  This  was  scarcely  his  original  nature,  but  of 
that  the  Egyptians  themselves  seem  to  have  lost  all 
tradition.  His  name  is  derived  from  the  same  root  as 
the  word  Ainenti,  which  designated  both  the  West  and 
the  Underworld,  and  thus  suggests  that  he  may  have  been 
considered  a  god  of  the  dead  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  texts,  especially  those  referring  to  Amen  in 
combination  with  Min,  which  would  lead  us  to  regard 
him  as  having  been  a  deity  personifying  the  continual 
self  renewing  power  of  nature.  When  Amen  is  spoken 
of  in  the  later  texts  it  is  always  Amen  Ra  who  is 
meant.  In  the  last  millennium  B.C.  Amen  Ra  became  a 
pantheistic  deity,  and  much  mystic  philosophy  was  evolved 


TENDENCY   TO   MONOTHEISM.  IO9 

out  of  his  name,  "  The  Hidden  One,"  first  by  the  Egyptians 
themselves  and  afterwards  by  the  Greeks.  He  was  held  to 
be  the  secret,  all  creating,  all  sustaining  power  primarily 
incorporate  in  the  Sun.  Earlier  texts,  and  especially 
hymns,  deriving  their  arguments  and  comparisons  from 
the  sun  that  warms  and  enlightens  all,  had  already  praised 
Amen  Ra  in  almost  monotheistic  style  as  Lord  and 
Creator  of  the  universe,  and  so  prepared  the  way  for  the 
later  and  pantheistic  conception. 

Besides  such  texts,  many  passages  are  found  in  Egyptian 
inscriptions  and  papyri  where  it  is  stated  that  "  god  "—i.e. 
"a  god,"  the  indefinite  article  not  being  generally  ex- 
pressed in  Egyptian -is  praised,  "god"  knows  the 
wicked,  "  god  "  grants  a  field,  "  god  "  loves  the  obedient, 
etc.,  and  from  all  these  it  has  often  been  concluded  that 
hereby  is  meant  the  one  God  who  is  from  everiasting  to 
everlasting,  the  God  of  the  Jewish  prophets  and  even  of 
Christendom.  Such  an  interpretation  is,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  impossible.  The  same  texts  which  make  these 
assertions  speak  of  other  deities  as  coexistent,  and  show 
that  in  using  the  word  "god"  the  scribe  was  thinking 
only  of  the  god  most  near  to  him,  the  god  of  his  nome, 
the  neter  nilti,  "  the  god  belonging  to  the  city,"  of  the 
texts.  This  god  was  to  the  writer  an  all  embracing  power, 
yet  one  which  did  not  exclude  the  existence  of  other 
powers  that  might,  to  other  minds,  hold  the  first  place. 
Osiris,  Horus,  Thoth,  Ra  Tum  Harmakhis,  Ptah  Tanen, 
the  Nile,  Amen  Ra,  and  others  are  each  from  time  to 
time  severally  adored  in  the  texts  as  one  and  only  god  ; 
but  from  this  it  is  vain  to  draw  far  reaching  conclusions 


no  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

as  to  the  fundamental  ideas  of  the  Ancient  Egyptian 
religion.  Yet  although  such  expressions  afford  no  proof 
of  an  original  and  recurring  monotheism  held  as  a  creed 
by  the  Egyptian  people,  it  cannot  be  proved  from  the 
inscriptions  that  no  such  conception  existed  in  Ancient 
Egypt.  In  view  of  the  repeated  attempts  to  bring  the 
Egyptian  religion  forward  in  evidence,  now  on  the  one 
side  and  now  on  the  other,  in  the  discussion  concerning 
an  early  monotheism,  the  fact  must  be  emphasized  again 
and  again  that  no  trustworthy  evidence  whatever  is  as  yet 
afforded  to  either  side  by  our  knowledge  of  that  religion. 
It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  only  a  small  part  of  the 
material  left  to  us  by  Ancient  Egypt  is  as  yet  at  our 
disposal ;  much  still  lies  beneath  the  soil,  and  much  still 
rests  undisturbed  in  private  and  public  collections.  For 
the  religious  texts  especially,  very  little  has  been  done. 
Until  more  of  these  have  been  published  and  carefully 
studied  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  any  certainty  as  to  the 
nucleus  and  origins  of  the  motley  confusion  now  known 
to  us  as  the  Egyptian  religion.  In  the  study  of 
Egyptian  religion,  as  in  all  other  branches  of  Egyptology, 
our  knowledge  is  as  yet  very  imperfect.  We  must  not 
therefore  conclude  that  the  extra  Egyptian  tradition  of 
certain  facts  and  systems  of  thought  is  untrustworthy 
because  the  inscriptions  and  papyri  have  hitherto  yielded 
us  no  testimony  on  their  behalf.  Many  such  conclusions 
have  been  emphatically  asserted  only  to  be  proved 
erroneous  on  a  closer  examination  of  the  texts,  and  others 
may  at  any  time  be  refuted  by  some  crucial  discovery. 
Our    knowledge    of    the    subject    is    advanced     by    the 


HYMN   TO   AMEN    RA.  Ill 

Statements   of   the    inscriptions,    not    by    their    accidental 
silence. 

The  longest,  finest,  and  at  the  same  time  most  in- 
structive of  the  hymns  to  Amen  Ra  which  have  come 
down  to  us  is  now  preserved,  in  the  Gizeh  Museum,  in  a 
copy  made  on  papyrus  and  dating  from  the  XXth  Dynasty.^ 
It  is  written  in  what  may  be  called  verse,  the  close  of  each 
line  being  marked  by  a  red  point.  In  the  following 
translation  each  line  represents  one  line  of  the  hymn 
in  the  original.  The  arrangement  of  ideas  and  the 
parallelism  of  the  parts  recall  the  style  of  the  Hebrew 
psalms,  with  the  wording  of  which  many  sentences  of  the 
hymn  closely  correspond  ;  though  the  comparison  does 
not,  of  course,  extend  to  the  conception  of  the  godhead. 
The  text  runs  as  follows  : — 

Praise  to  Amen  Ra  ! 
To  the  bull  in  Heliopolis,  to  the  chief  of  all  the  gods, 
To  the  beautiful  and  beloved  god, 
Who  giveth  life  by  all  manner  of  warmth,  by 
All  manner  of  fair  cattle. 

Hail  to  thee,  Amen  Ra,  lord  of  the  throne  of  the  two  lands, 
Dwelling  in  Thebes, 

Husband  of  his  Mother,^  dwelling  in  his  fields, 
Wide-ranging,  dwelling  in  the  Land  of  the  South, 
Lord  of  the  Libyans  {Mdtau),  ruler  of  Arabia  {Pi'cnt), 
Prince  of  heaven,  heir  of  earth, 
The  lord  who  giveth  duration  to  things,  duration  to  all  things. 


'  Pap.  Bulak,  No.  17;  Mariette,  Pap.  de  Boulaq,  ii.,  pis.  11- 
13  ;  Reinisch,  Chrestomathie,  ii.,  pis.  45-47.  Cf.  also  Grebaut, 
Hymne  a  Ammon-Rd,  Paris,  1874;  the  latter,  however,  imputes 
to  the  text  a  more  profound  religious  perception  than  seems  to  me 
possible. 

-  For  the  meaning  of  this  title,  see  above,  p.  104. 


2  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

Alone  in  his  forms  (?)  in  the  midst  of  the  gods, 
The  goodly  bull  of  the  Ennead  of  the  gods, 
The  chief  of  all  the  gods, 
Lord  of  truth,  father  of  the  gods, 
Maker  of  men,  former  of  the  flocks, 
Lord  of  the  things  which  are,   former  of  fruit  trees, 
Maker  of  herbage,  who  maketh  the  cattle  to  live. 
Fair  Power,'  made  by  Ptah,  youth  fair  of  love. 

The  gods  give  praise  unto  him  ; 
Maker  of  things  below  and  things  above,  he  illuminateth 
The  two  lands,  he  traverseth  the  upper  heaven  in  peace  ; 
King  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  Ra  the  true  of  voice  {mad- 

kheric),  chief  of  the  two  lands. 
Great  one  of  valour,  lord  of  awe, 
Chief,  making  the  earth  in  all  its  forms, 
Making  the  attributes  of  every  god(?). 
The  gods  rejoice  by  reason  of  his  beauties  ; 
Acclamations  are  given  to  him  in  the  great  house  (the  temple 

of  Amen), 
Solemn  manifestations  in  the  house  of  flame  [i.e.  when  he  is  led 
forth  in  solemn  procession). 

The  gods  love  his  perfume 
When  he  cometh  from  Arabia  {Punt)  ; 
Prince  of  the  dew,  he  traverseth  the  land  of  the  Libyans, 
Who  cometh  fair  of  face   [from]  the   divine   land  {ta  neter, 

Arabia) ; 
The  gods  gather  as  dogs  round  his  feet. 
When  they  recognize  his  majesty  as  their  lord. 
Lord  of  fear,  great  one  of  terror, 
Great  of  soul,  mighty  ....  (?), 
Causing  offerings  to  flourish  (?),  maker  of  plenty. 

Praises  to  thee,  maker  of  the  gods, 
Thou  who  didst  raise  the  heaven  on  high,  thou  who  didst  put 
down  (///.  strike  down)  the  earth. 

Pause. 
Wake  in  health  (?),  Min  Amen  {i.e.  Amen  as  creator), 
Lord  of  the  Everlasting,  maker  of  Eternity, 


'  For  the  meaning  of  the  word  sekhem,  "power,"  or  rather,  the 
power  incarnate  in  the  figure  of  a  deity,  compare  Wiedemann 
in  Le  Museon,  xv.,  pp.  46  et  seq.    Cf.  also  pp.  242-3. 


HYMN   TO   AMEN    RA.  II3 

Lord  of  adorations  dwelling  in  Thebes, 

Established  with  thy  two  horns,  fair  of  face, 

Lord  of  the  uraeus  crown,   exalted  by  the  two  feathers. 

Beautiful  of  diadem,  [exalted  one]  of  the  white  crown  of  Upper 

Egypt,'  the  kingly  land  and  the  two  uraei  are  his  (?). 
He  is  adorned  (?)  in  his   palace  with  the   Sekhet  crown, ^  the 

Nemmes  cap,^  and  the  Kheperesh  helmet.'' 
Fair  of  face,  he  seizeth  the  Atef  crown, '^ 
Loving    its    south    and    its    north    {i.e.   the    two    divisions    of 

Egypt  which  are  symbolized  by  the  crown)  ; 
Lord  of  power (?),  he  seizeth  the  Ames  sceptre;^ 
Lord  of  protection,  who  holdeth  the  scourge,'' 
Beautiful  ruler,  appearing  with  the  white  crown, 
Lord  of  rays,  making  light. 

The  gods  give  praises  unto  him  ; 
His  two  hands  give  gifts  to  him  that  loveth  him, 
He  casteth  down  his  enemies  by  flames  of  fire. 
His  eye  it  is  which  overthroweth  the  wicked, 
It   casteth   its   lance   at   the   devourer   of  Nu,    it  causeth   the 

serpent  (?)  to  spit  forth  what  it  hath  eaten  (?).* 
Hail  to  thee,  Ra,  lord  of  truth  ! 
Hidden  is  thine  abode,  lord  of  the  gods  ! 
Khepera  in  his  bark. 

He  spake  words  and  the  gods  were  created. 
Tum,  maker  of  intelligent  beings, 
How  many  soever  they  be  ;  making  them  to  live. 
Distinguishing  their  complexions  (?)  (i.e.  of  the  different  races) 

one  from  the  other. 


'  The  crown  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  Yj  ,  called  in  later  times 
Pschent.  ^ 

3    1^  4    f)j 

^  A  tall  cap  with  a  pair  of  horns  and  a  pair  of  feathers. 

•^   This  sceptre  has  the  form  of    \V,  with  a  scourge  fixed  to  it. 

'  A 

^^  This  somewhat  unintelligible  passage  refers  to  the  serpent  Apep, 
and,  as  it  seems,  to  a  myth  according  to  which  Ra  pierced  this  mon- 
ster and  so  compelled  him  to  eject  the  prey  that  he  had  swallowed  : 
cf.  above,  p.  80. 

8 


114  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

Hearing  the  prayer  of  him  who  is  in  affliction, 

Kindly  of  heart  towards  him  who  calleth  upon  him. 

He  delivereth  the  timid  from  him  who  is  of  a  froward  heart ; 

He  judgeth  the  cause  of  the  poor,  between  the  poor  and  the 

mighty. 
He  is  the  lord  of  understanding,  plenty  is  on  his  lips. 
He  Cometh  as  the  Nile  to  those  who  love  him. 
Lord  of  sweetness,  a  great  one  of  love. 
He  [maketh]  to  live  intelligent  beings, 
He  giveth  movement  to  every  one  (///.  to  every  eye). 
He  is  made  out  of  Nu, 
Creating  the  rays  of  light. 
The  gods  rejoice  in  his  beauties. 
Their  hearts  live  when  they  behold  him. 

Pause. 

Ra  exalted   in    Thebes,  great  of  splendour   in   the    Benben 
house  (at  Heliopolis), 

Ani  (stable  one),  lord  of  the  festival  of  the  ninth  day  of  the 
month, 

To   whom    is    celebrated   the    feast    of   the    sixth    day   of   the 
month,  and  the  feast  of  the  quarter  month, 

Sovereign,  to  whom  Life,  Prosperity,  Health!    lord  of  all  the 
gods. 

He  is  seen  in  the  midst  of  the  horizon, 

Chief  over  all  beings  that  are  beneath  (the  sky) ; 

Hidden  [amen)  is  his  name  to  his  children 

In  his  name  of  Amen  (the  hidden  one). 
Hail  to  thee  who  art  in  peace ! 

Lord  of  joy,  mighty  one  of  diadems. 

Lord  of  the  uraeus  crown,  exalted  by  the  two  feathers, 

Fair  by  the  frontlet,  exalted  by  the  white  crown. 

The  gods  love  the  sight  of  thee. 

The  Sekhet  crown  is  established  upon  thy  forehead. 

Thy  graces  are  moving,  traversing  the  two  lands  ; 

Thy  rays  are  shining  forth  from  [thy]  two  eyes  ;  fair  for  man- 
kind is  thy  rising  ; 

Weary  are  the  flocks  when  thou  shinest  (in  all  thy  strength). 

Thy  graces  are   in   the  sky  of  the  south,  thy  sweet  pleasant- 
ness in  the  sky  of  the  north. 

Tliy  beauties  conquer  hearts, 


HYMN    TO   AMEN    RA.  II5 

Thy  graces  make  weary  the  arms, 

The  fair  things  thou  hast  fashioned  make  the  hands  to  fall ;  ' 

Hearts  fail  at  the  sight  of  thee. 

Only  form,  who  didst  make  all   that  is,  one  and   only  one, 
maker  of  all  that  have  being  ! 
Mankind  went  forth  from  his  two  eyes. 
The  gods  were  created  on  his  lips. 

He  maketh  the  herbage  which  maketh  the  cattle  to  live,^ 
The  fruit  trees  for  men  ; 
He  maketh  to  live  the  fishes  [in]  the  river. 
The  fowls  beneath  the  sky  (?). 
He  giveth  breath  to  that  which  is  in  the  egg ; 
He  maketh  the  grasshoppers  to  live. 
He  maketh  the  birds  to  live. 
The  creeping  things  and  the  flying,  as  well  as  v.'hat  belongeth 

to  them. 
He  maketh  provision  for  the  mice  in  [their]  holes  ; 
He  maketh  to  live  the  birds  in  every  tree. 

Hail  to  thee,  maker  of  all  these  ! 
One  and  only  one,  he  hath  many  arms  (?). 
When  resting  he  watcheth  over  all  who  repose. 
Seeking  good  for  his  creatures. 
Amen  who  establishest  imeti)  all  things, 
Turn  Harmakhis  ! 

Praises  are  to  thee  when  they  (the  creatures  of  Amen)  all  say  : 
"  Praises  to  thee,  for  thou  restest  in  us  ; 
Obeisance^  to  thee  for  that  thou  didst  form  us  !  " 

Hail  to  thee  from  all  flocks. 
Acclamations  to  thee  from  every  land. 
To  the  height  of  heaven,  to  the  width  of  earth, 
To  the  depth  of  the  sea."* 


^  I.e.  "It  is  impossible  to  praise  thee  enough,"  adoration  being 
offered  in  Egypt  by  uplifting  the  arms. 

^  The  word  has  for  determinatives  the  figures  of  an  o.x,  an  ass, 
a  pig,  and  a  sheep. 

'^  I.e.  prostration,  lit.  "smelling  the  earth,"  the  Egyptian 
expression  of  profound  reverence. 

^  Lit.  "  great  green  "  ;  often  used  for  the  Mediterranean,  but  also 
for  other  large  sheets  of  water. 


Il6  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

The  gods  bow  before  thy  majesty ; 

They  exalt  the  spirits  {ba.il)  of  him  who  formed  them, 

They  rejoice  at  the  comings  of  him  who  begat  them  ; 

They  say  unto  thee:   "Approach  in  peace, 

Father  of  the  fathers  of  all  the  gods, 

Thou  who  upholdest  the  heaven  and  puttest  down  the  earth." 

Maker  of  those  which  are,  former  of  those  which  have  being, 
Sovereign,  to  whom  Life,  Prosperity,  Health  !  chief  of  the  gods, 
We  adore  thy  spirits  {buM)  even  as  thou  madest  us; 
Thy  creatures  are  we  because  thou  hast  borne  us  (?)  ; 
We  give  praises  unto  thee,  for  thou  restest  in  us. 

Hail  to  thee  who  didst  make  all  that  is  ! 
Lord  of  truth,  father  of  the  gods, 
Maker  of  men,  former  of  the  flocks, 
Lord  of  corn, 

Making  to  live  the  herds  of  the  desert. 
Amen,  bull  fair  of  face. 
Beloved  in  Thebes, 

Great  one  of  splendours  in  the  Benben  house. 
Taking  again  (?)  the  diadem  in  Heliopolis, 
Thou  who  judgedst  the  dispute  between  the  Twins'  in  the  great 

hall, 
Chief  of  the  Great  Ennead  of  the  gods. 

One  and  only  one,  without  his  peer. 
Dwelling  in  Thebes, 
Ani  in  his  divine  ennead. 
He  liveth  in  truth  every  day. 
Harmakhis  in  the  east. 

He  fashioneth  earth,  the  silver  and  the  gold, 
Real  lapis  lazuli  for  those  who  love  him  ; 
Balsam  (?)  and  incense  together  in  the  land  of  the  Libyans 

{Mdtail), 
Fresh  incense  for  thy  nostril ; 
Fair  of  face  coming  [to]  the  Libyans, 
Amen  Ra,  lord  of  the  throne  of  the  two  lands. 
Dwelling  in  Thebes  {ixpt-t-u), 
Ani  dwelling  in  his  sanctuary  {apt) ! 


'  A  reference  to  the  occasion  on  which,  according  to  the  legend, 
Ra  gave  final  judgment  at  Heliopolis  in  the  quarrel  between  the 
twin  adversaries,  Horus  and  Set. 


HYMN  TO  Amen  ra.  117 

Pause. 
King  is  he  when  alone  even  as  in  the  midst  of  the  gods ; 
Many  are  his  names,  none  knoweth  their  number  ;    he  riseth 
in  the  horizon  of  the   east,   he  setteth   in   the  horizon  of 
the  west ; 
He  overthroweth  his  enemies, 
[Giving]  provisions  (?)  the  day  of  each  day, 
The  morning  of  the  birth  (?j  of  each  day. 
Thoth  raiseth  his  eyes  ; 
He  droopeth  them  before  his  splendour. 
The  gods  rejoice  at  his  beauties. 
Those  who  are  worshipping'  extol  him. 
Lord  of  the  Sekti  and  of  the  Madet  bark, 
Which  traverse  for  thee  Ntj  in  peace, 
Thy  crew  rejoice 

When  they  see  the  overthrow  of  the  wicked, 
Whose  limbs  are  tasted  by  the  knife. 
The  flame  devoureth  him. 
Punished  is(?)  his  soul  for  his  iniquity, 
This  wicked  one  who  is  saved  by  his  legs  (?).* 
The  gods  are  in  exultation, 
The  crew  of  Ra  are  in  peace; 
Heliopolis  is  in  exultation, 
The   enemies   of  Turn   are   overthrown.     Thebes  is    in   peace, 

Heliopolis  is  in  exultation. 
The  heart  of  the  mistress  of  life^  is  glad, 
The  enemies  of  her  lord  are  overthrown. 
The  gods  of  Babylon*  are  in  acclamation. 
The  dwellers  in  Letopolis  are  in  obeisance ;  * 
They  behold  him  mighty  in  his  power. 
As  the  powerful  one  of  the  gods ;  truth,^  lord  of  Thebes, 
In    thy  name,    "Maker    of    Truth,    Lord    of    Plenty,    Bu'll    of 
Offerings," 

'  The  cynocephali  who  give  praise  to  Ra. 

-  A  reference  to  the  Apep  serpent,  which  was  conquered  but  not 
destroyed,  and  worsted  in  the  fight  on  one  day  only  to  renew  his 
attack  upon  the  Sun  on  the  following. 

3  Name  of  the  uraeus  serpent,  worn  by  the  king  on  his  forehead. 

*  The  fort  opposite  Memphis,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Nile. 

^  I.e.  in  the  act  of  "  smelling  the  earth." 

«  Apparently  this  is  here  one  of  the  titles  of  Amen. 


i8 


THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 


In  thy  name,   "Amen,  Bull  {i.e.  Husband)  of  his  Mother, 

Maker  of  men, 

Who  createdst  the  making  of  all  that  is," 

In  thy  name,   "Turn  Khepera." 

Great  hawk,  celebrated  is  [his]  body  ; 

Fair  of  face,  celebrated  is  his  eye ;  ' 

His  image  is  made  [many]  ells  high. 

The  two  uraei  fiy  on  wings  before  him. 

The  hearts  of  men  fawn  (like  dogs)  before  him, 

The  glorified  ones  go  forth  towards  him. 

The  two  lands  celebrate  feasts  at  his  appearing. 

Hail  to  thee.  Amen  Ra,  lord  of  the  throne  of  the  two  lands  ! 
Whose  city  loveth  his  rising. 

[This  work]  is  completed 

in  peace, 

as  it  was  found. - 


Amen  Ra  is  generally  figured  in 
human  form  ;  he  holds  the  sceptre 
alone,  or  the  sceptre  and  symbol  of 
life  in  his  hand,  and  is  crowned  with 
the  sun  disk  and  two  long  feathers 
4j?,  which  rise  either  from  a  stiff 
cap  ^M,  or  else  from  a  pair  of 
ram's  horns  ,///.  He  was  sometimes 
coloured  blue,  probably  because  that 
was  the  colour  of  the  heavens  in 
which  he  ruled  as  Sun  eod  ;  ^  and  he 


FIG.    19. 
AMEN   RA.      (l.   D.   III.  22.) 

Obelisk  of  Hatshepsii, 
at  Karnak. 


•  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  sun  is  regarded  as  the  eye  of  the  god. 

^  The  orthodox  conclusion  of  Egyptian  texts,  corresponding  to 
the  "explicit  feliciter  "  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

'  It  has  been  brought  to  my  notice  that  Amen  is  coloured  green 
in  the  tomb  of  Seti  I.,  at  any  rate.  The  precise  colouring  of  the 
deities  on  the  monuments,  at  present  very  little  studied,  would  form 
a  profitable  subject  of  inquiry  by  one  on  the  spot  in  Egypt,  leading 
to  interesting  results  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  several  divinities. 


AMEN    RA. 


119 


has  the  horns  of  a  ram,  because  in  Thebes  he  was  supposed 
to  be  incarnate  in  a  ram.  It  must,  however,  be  noted  that, 
strictly  speaking,  the  horns  represented  as  standing  out  at 
the  sides  are  not  those  of  Amen,  but  those  of  Khnum,  and 
that  in  representations  of  the  god  with  these  horns  a  com- 
bination has  taken  place  of  the  gods  Amen  and  Khnum, 
originally  distinct  :    the  horns   of  Amen    curl   round  the 


FIG.    20. — AMEN    R.'^,    HIS    SACRED    RAMS    AND    GOOSE.       (STELA 
IN    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 

ear.^  The  dromos  of  the  temple  of  Amen  was  flanked 
along  its  length  on  both  sides  by  colossal  rams  with 
coiled  horns,  which  guarded  the  approach  to  his  sanctuary 
as  representing  the  animals  sacred  to  him.  In  Thebes 
the  reverence  for  the  ram  in  which  the  god  was  supposed 
to  be  incarnate  was  extended  in  a  modified  form  to  all 
rams,  and  they  were  held  exempt  from  slaughter ;  for 
1  Cf.  Lepsius,  Ae^.  Zeit.,  1877,  pp.  8  et  seq. 


I20  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

since  the  god  had  vouchsafed  to  clothe  himself  in  this 
form  its  destruction  was  a  crime  ;  in  other  Egyptian  cities 
the  animal  was  slaughtered  for  food  without  scruple.  The 
Theban  cult  of  the  ram  headed  god  Amen  penetrated  to 
the  Oasis  of  Jupiter  Ammon,  probably  about  the  beginning 
of  the  New  Kingdom,  and  there  blended  with  a  worship 
centring  round  a  sacred  stone  which  was  probably  of 
Semitic  origin.  Thence,  about  a  thousand  years  later, 
it  passed  across  the  sea  to  Greece,  where  several  temples 
were  erected  to  Amen.  Alexander  the  Great  caused 
himself  to  be  hailed  as  the  son  of  Zeus  Ammon,  and 
assumed  the  characteristic  incurvated  horns  of  the  god  of 
Thebes  on  coinage  and  elsewhere,  thus  familiarizing  the 
whole  Graeco-Oriental  world  with  that  deity.  The  oracles 
on  which  the  power  of  the  god  of  the  Oasis  was  founded 
in  the  Greek  world  were  delivered  also  in  his  native 
Thebes.  Here,  from  the  XXth  to  the  XXIInd  Dynasty, 
his  counsel  was  taken,  not  only  as  regards  important 
matters  of  church  and  state,  but  also  in  connexion  with 
such  comparative  trifles  as  the  identification  of  a  thief^ 
The  Theban  kings  saw  in  him  whom  they  invoked  as  the 
Lord  of  Heaven  and  of  the  Thrones  of  the  Two  Lands 
and  King  of  the  Gods,  one  who  was  in  an  especial  sense 
their  constant  companion  and  counsellor.  He  it  was 
who  sent  them  forth  to  war  ;  he  fought  at  their  side  in 
battle  ;  he  it  was  who  got  them  the  victory  ;  and  to  him 
therefore  was  given  a  great  portion  of  the  spoil.  In  all 
serious    matters,   even    in    connexion    with    testamentary 

'  A  British  Museum  papyrus  relating'  to  an  inquiry  of  this  nature 
is  discussed  by  Pleyte,  Proc.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  x.,  pp.  41  et  seq. 


AMEN    RA. 


arrangements,  it  was  sought  to  ascertain  his  views  ; 
judgments  were  ratified  by  him,  and  whoso  opposed  his 
sentences,  upon  him  fell  the  divine  curse.^ 


FIG.    21. — AMEN    RA    AS    A    GOOSE.       (sTELA    IN    AUTHORS    POSSESSION.) 

According  to  the  inscriptions,  intercourse  between  king 

'  Cf.  Naville,  l7iscriptio7i  historiqtie  de  Pinodjeni  III.,  Paris, 
1883;  and  Maspero,  Les  Alomies  royales  de  Deir-el-Bahari 
{Mej}z.  du  Caire,  i.  4). 


122  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

and  god  was  arranged  as  follows.  The  king  presented 
himself  before  the  god  and  preferred  a  direct  question, 
so  framed  as  to  admit  of  an  answer  by  simple  yes  or  no ; 
in  reply  the  god  nodded  an  affirmative,  or  shook  his 
head  in  negation.  This  has  suggested  the  idea  that 
the  oracles  were  worked  by  manipulating  statues  of 
divinities  mechanically  set  in  motion  by  the  priests. 
But  as  yet  no  such  statues  have  been  found  in  the  Valley 
of  the  Nile,  and  contrivances  of  this  kind  could  have  had 
no  other  object  than  to  deceive  the  people,  a  supposition 
apparently  excluded  in  this  case  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
customary  for  the  king  to  visit  the  god  alone  and  in 
secret.  Probably  the  king  presented  himself  on  such 
occasions  before  the  sacred  animal  in  which  the  god 
was  incarnate,  believing  that  the  divine  will  would  be 
manifested  by  its  movements. 

MUT  was  the  wife  of  Amen  Ra,  "  mistress  of  the  gods, 
lady  of  heaven,  eye  of  Ra  "  ;  and  in  the  city  of  Samhud 
she  was  held  to  be  the  daughter  of  Ra.  The  chief  centre 
of  her  worship  was  Asher,  a  spot  south  of  Karnak. 
Here  Amenophis  III.  built  a  temple  dedicated  to  the 
goddess  Mut,  with  a  sacred  lake  attached  to  it.  Votive 
statues  representing  the  goddess  lioness  headed,  both 
standing  and  seated,  were  dedicated  here  by  the  founder 
and  by  Sheshonk  I.  (the  Shishak  of  the  Bible)  in  such 
numbers  that  even  in  ancient  times  many  were  transferred 
to  other  Egyptian  sanctuaries  ;  almost  every  great  museum 
of  the  world  now  possesses  one  or  more  of  them.  In  wall 
scenes  Mut  is  more  commonly  represented  in  human  form. 
The  word  milt  means  "mother,"  and  thus  itself  denotes 


MUT — AMENT. 


[23 


the  maternal  function  of  the  goddess  in  the  Theban  triad. 
The  ideographic  sign  used  to  write  her  name,  the  image 
of  a  vulture,  \^n'  is  at  the 
same  time  in  Egyptian 
the  sign  for  the  word 
"  mother."  This  fact  was 
recognized  by  Horapollo^ 
in  his  work  on  hierogly- 
phics, written  as  late  as 
the  fifth  century  A.D.,  of 
which  excerpts  have  come 
down  to  us  in  Greek. 

Ament,  another  Theban 
divinity,  is  sometimes 
named  in  the  place  of 
Miit ;  she,  however,  was 
not  one  of  the  genuine 
and  original  deities,  but, 
as  the  construction  of  her 
name  implies,  merely  an 
artificial  creation.  Con- 
sidering her  derivation  it 
is  not  surprising  to  find 
that  Ament  was  in  even 
closer  affinity  to  Amen 
than  Mut  herself,  being 
represented  with  the  head 
of  a  sheep,  as  correspond- 
ing to  the   ram's   head    of 


FIG.    22. — MUX.       (L.  D.  HI.  221,  b.) 

Karnak,  Hypostyle  Hall,  XXth  Dynasty. 


The  best  publication  of  this  work  is  by  Leemans,  Amsterdam,  1 835. 


124  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

her  husband.  Notwithstanding  the  similarity  of  name 
this  Ament  has  no  connexion  whatever  with  the  goddess 
Amenti — the  Greek  Amenthes — -the  personification  of  the 
Underworld. 

KhunsO  is  in  the  first  place  a  lunar  deity,  and  as  such 
corresponds  almost  completely  to  Thoth  ;  at  Hermopolis 
and  Edfu  the  two  deities  were  occasionally  fused  into  one 
under  the  name  of  Khunsu-Thoth.  His  name,  too,  which 
is  derived  from  the  root  kJiens — "  to  traverse  " — alludes 
to  his  connexion  with  the  heavenly  bodies.  He  was 
figured  as  a  hawk  headed  god  crowned  with  the  lunar 
crescent  and  the  solar  disk ;  both  these  symbols  being 
proper  to  all  lunar  deities  :  to  Thoth,  to  Ah,  who  is  purely 
a  moon  god,  and  others.  In  its  present  form,  his  great 
temple  at  Thebes,  situate  between  that  of  Amen  and  that 
of  Mut,  was  begun  by  Rameses  HI.,  and  completed  and 
decorated  by  kings  of  the  XX  1st  Dynasty.  About  that 
time,  as  would  appear  from  the  Bentresht  Stela,^  Khunsu 
was  definitely  resolved  into  two  distinct  forms,  the  one 
person  being  Khunsu,  the  Fair-resting  One  in  Thebes, 
and  the  second  Khunsu,  the  Carrier  out  of  Plans.  The 
first  is  mentioned  in  ancient  texts  ;  to  the  second  no  early 
reference  is  known,  but  he  appears  in  inscriptions  of  the 
XXVIth  Dynasty  and  of  the  Ptolemaic  period.'^ 

By  the  Greeks  Khunsu  was  sometimes  compared  to 
Herakles,  not  that  the  latter  had  ever  been  apprehended 
as  a  lunar  divinity,  but  possibly  because  Khunsu  may  have 
been  regarded  as  a  sun  god.  We  have  at  least  some 
testimony  in  favour  of  such  a  view,  for  at  Kom  Ombo 
•  Cf.  pp.  275-7.  -  Proc.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  xiii.,  p.  274. 


KHUNSU— MENT. 


125 


KhunsLi  took  on  the  composite  form  of  Khunsu-Hor,  and 
in  Thebes  that  of  Khunsu-Shu  and  of  Khunsu-Ra.  Thus 
it  is  clear  that  he  could  occasionally  assume  a  solar 
character,  as  his  hawk  head  would  also  indicate. 

Ment,  Greek  Month,  ranked  next  in  importance  to  Amen 
among  the  chief  gods  of  the  Theban 
nome.  Here  he  was  worshipped  in 
a  great  temple  near  Karnak,  in 
Medamot,  in  Taud,  and  in  Erment 
on  the  opposite  bank,  in  fact  in  so 
many  places  as  to  suggest  the  idea 
that  he  was  the  true  god  of  the 
nome  and  had  preceded  Amen  in 
that  capacity.  Since,  however,  his 
name  seems  to  be  radically  con- 
nected with  dvien,  it  is  possible  that 
both  gods  were  originally  identical 
and  only  subsequently  differentiated. 
Ment  was  emphatically  a  god  of 
war,  fighting  with  the  Egyptian 
army  in  their  battles,  and  granting 
might  and  victory  to  the  king.  In 
later  times  he  was  often  combined 
with  the  Sun  god  as  Ment  Ra,  and 
as  such  he  stands  in  the  prow  of  the 
solar  bark  armed  with  a  lance  and 
ready  to  pierce  the  enemies  who  oppose  the  progress  of  the 
Sun.  In  Erment  Ra.t  Taiii  was  recognized  as  his  wife,  but 
in  Taud,  Anit  or  Hathor.  Ment  is  represented  as  hawk 
headed  and   as  wearing  the  headdress  of  Amen,    i>.     In 


MEN- 


FIG.    23. 

(l.  d.  III.  124, «.) 
Karnak,  Hypostyle  Hall, 
Rameses  I. 


126  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

Erment  his  sacred  animal  was  a  bull,  Bakh,  the  Bacis  of 
the  classic  writers  ;  and  it  appears  as  if  the  title  "  strong 
bull"  borne  by  the  kings  of  the  Thcban  dynasties  was 
borrowed  from  this  animal.  Bacis  is  designated  by  the 
texts  as  the  "living  soul  of  Ra,"  that  is  to  say,  an  incarna- 
tion of  the  god  ;   thus  proving  that  when  this  name  was 


FIG.  24.— BAKH,  THE  BULL  OF  MENT.  (  GKEBAUT,  "  MUSEE,"  VI.  I.) 

Stela  from  Funerary  Temple  of  Prince  Uazmes,  at  Thebes. 

first  bestowed  the  fusion  of  Ment  with  Ra  had  already 
been  accomplished.  The  animal  must  have  been  wor- 
shipped also  at  Taud,  where  the  god  is  represented  as 
wearing  his  usual  headdress,  but  with  the  head  and  horns 
of  a  bull.  The  cult  of  Ment  is  prominent  in  many  of  the 
later  Itexts  ;  for  when  Thebes  had  lost  her  political  and 


MIN.  127 

social  supremacy  Erment  became  the  capital  of  the  district, 
and  many  inscriptions  relating  to  Ment,  or  rather  to  Ment 
Ra,  were  then  placed  in  temples  at  Karnak  originally 
dedicated  to  Amen  and  his  cycle.  The  mention  of  Ment 
in  the  older  texts  is  chiefly  confined  to  figures  of  speech 
in  which  the  king  is  said  to  be  brave  as  Ment,  to  have 
conquered  his  foes  like  Ment,  and  the  like  ;  but  such 
expressions  afford  no  data  for  the  understanding  of  the 
nature  and  cult  of  the  deity  in  question.  As  the  Egyptian 
war  god  he  is  occasionally  placed  in  a  certain  antithesis 
to  the  Semitic  Baal,  and  the  combined  might  of  Ment 
and  Baal,  when  granted  to  a  king,  was  esteemed  the  very 
epitome  of  strength. 

MiN  ^  was  the  nome  god  of  Panopolis  and  an  important 
deity,  more  or  less  worshipped  throughout  the  whole  of 
Egypt.  He  is  represented  as  an  ithyphallic  figure  :  the 
right  arm  is  upraised  and  waves  a  scourge  above  his 
head.  Behind  the  god  there  is  generally  a  shrine  with 
trees  upon  or  near  it.  His  sacred  animal  was  the  ram. 
He  is  the  god  of  the  generative  power  of  nature  :  hence 
it  was  to  him  that  the  harvest  festivals  were!  dedicated 
as  a  sign  of  gratitude  for  the  abundance  which  he  caused 
to  spring  forth  from  the  earth ;  and  hence  also  certain 
gods — particularly  Amen  Ra— were  identified  with  him 
when  referred  to  as  "  husbands  of  their  mothers,"  i.:.  as 
begetters  of  their  divine  sons.^ 

^  The  name,  almost  invariably  written  by  an  ideogram,  has  been 
read  by  Egyptologists  as  Khem  or  Amsi,  as  well  as  Mm.  Variants 
of  Greek  times  give  the  correct  pronunciation,  Min. 

-  Cf.  p.  104. 


128  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

KhnUM  or  Khnef,  the  Khnumis  or  Kneph  of  the 
Greeks,  who  was  specially  worshipped  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  first  cataract,  was  regarded,  as  his  name  would 
indicate,  as  the  "  Modeller."  In  many  Egyptian  texts 
he  is  set  forth  as  being  the  creator,  "  he  who  created  all 
that  is,  who  formed  that  which  is  existent,  the  father  of 
fathers,  the  mother  of  mothers "  ;  "  he  who  constructed 
men,  who  made  the  gods,  who  was  father  in  the  be- 
ginning " ;  "  the  creator  of  the  heaven,  the  earth,  the 
Underworld,  the  water,  the  hills  "  ;  "  he  who  formed  fowl, 
fish,  wild  animals,  and  all  creeping  things,  in  pairs,  male 
and  female."  Man  he  had  formed  and  turned  upon  a 
potter's  wheel  ;  even  under  the  New  Kingdom  it  was 
sometimes  believed  that  the  Pharaoh  had  been  so  made, 
and  in  the  "  Tale  of  the  Two  Brothers  "  we  read  how,  at 
the  command  of  Ra  Harmakhis,  Khnum  made  a  beautiful 
woman,  and  "  the  essence  of  all  the  gods  was  in  her."  ' 
According  to  other  texts,  he  was  also  a  cosmogonical 
deity ;  a  late  inscription  at  Esneh  informs  us  that  "  he 
raised  the  sky  upon  its  four  pillars,  he  uplifted  it  from 
eternity." 

His  sacred  animal  was  a  ram,  and  he  is  usually 
represented  as  ram  headed,  with  horns  horizontally  ex- 
tended, >^.  As  time  went  on  Khnum  was  combined 
with  Ra,  and  at  Abaton,  near  Philae,  the  sacred  ram  was 
called  the  "  living  soul  of  Ra,"  while  in  Heliopolis  he 
corresponded  to  Osiris  and  his  ram  was  worshipped  as 
an  incarnation  of  that  god.  The  association  of  these 
deities  with   this  form  of  incarnation  was  in  every  case 

'  Pa;p.  d'  Orbiney,  p.  9.     Cf.  Petrie,  Egy^tiaji  Tales,  ii.,  pp.  50-1. 


HEKT. 


129 


guided  by  the  idea  that  the  generative  power  in  the 
animal  was  identical  with  the  force  by  which  life  is  re- 
newed in  nature  continually,  and  in  man  after  death. 

Hekt,  the  frog  headed  goddess,  was  sometimes  con- 
sidered to  be  the  wife  of  the 
ram  god  ;  she  was  also  sup- 
posed to  be  a  form  of  Hathor 
and  the  mother  of  Aroeris. 
Although  frequent  reference 
is  made  to  her  in  the  texts, 
we  learn  nothing  as  to  her 
nature  or  functions :  under 
the  Old  Kingdom  great  men 
prided  themselves  on  being 
"  prophets  "  of  truth  and  of 
Hekt.  The  facts  that  she  is 
mentioned  and  figured  on  sar- 
cophagi, and  that  lamps  dating 
from  Coptic  times  bear  the 
image  of  a  frog  with  the  leg- 
end "  I  am  the  resurrection," 
show  that  she  played  some 
part  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection.  The  line  of 
thought  which  suggested  this 
association  probably  had  its  rise  in  the  old  Egyptian  belief, 
often  mentioned  by  Greek  writers,  that  frogs  were  born  of 
the  mud  which  the  Nile  fertilized  at  the  annual  inundation. 
It  was  even  asserted  that  animals  had  been  observed  when 
half  their  bodies  still  consisted  of  unformed  mud.     Hence 

9 


FIG.  25 


HEKT.       (WILKINSON, 
NO.   502.) 

Ptolemaic  or  Roman. 


130 


THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 


the  Egyptians  came  to  believe,  not  only  in  the  spontaneous 
generation  of  the  frog,  but  further  that  this  supposed 
phenomenon  was  a  reason  for  considering  that  the  first 
living  beings  originated  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile. 

Sati  is  a  goddess  associated  with   Khnum  more  com- 


FIG.   26. — KHNUM,    SATI.T,    AND    ANUKT.       (l.    D.    III.    63,    (i.) 

Temple  of  Thothmes  III.  at  Ibrim. 

monly  than  Hekt :  she,  Khnum,  and  Anukt  formed  the 
triad  of  Elephantine.  Her  titles  "  Lady  of  Heaven,  Mistress 
of  the  Two  Lands,  Chief  of  all  the  Gods,"  led  the  Greeks 
to  identify  her  with  Hera,  to  whom  she  had  no  other 
resemblance.     She  plays  no  part  in  the  myths  at  present 


TRIAD   OF   ELEPHANTINE.  13I 

known  to  us,but  is  mentioned  in  several  texts  as  the  daughter 
of  Ra.  She  is  represented  as  wearing  the  vulture  head- 
dress, the  horns  of  a  cow,  and  the  crown  of  Upper  Egypt. 

Anukt,  Greek  Anuki,  is  compared  to  Hestia,  for  which 
again  no  intrinsic  reason  can  be  discerned.  The  relation 
to  the  king  sometimes  attributed  to  her  is  characterized  in 
a  text  by  these  words  :  "  He  was  a  son  of  Khnum,  born  of 
Sati,  nursed  by  Anuki."  She  appears  on  the  monuments 
as  a  woman  with  the  sign  of  life  in  her  hand  and  a  crown 
of  feathers  on  her  head,  ^J|.  This  feather  headdress  sug- 
gests a  negro  divinity ;  and  indeed  the  high  honour  in 
which  she  was  held  from  the  cataracts  southward  and  the 
rare  occurrence  of  her  worship  in  the  north  alike  point 
to  a  Nubian  origin.  Her  title  "lady  of  Sati"  has  misled 
some  writers  into  regarding  her  as  an  Asiatic  goddess,  but 
"Sati"  as  a  place  name  denotes  not  Asia  only,  but  also 
the  island  of  Sehel  near  Philae,  which  was  the  chief  centre 
of  her  worship  and  from  which  this  title  is  derived. 

Ptah,  transliterated  Phtha  by  the  Greeks,  and  by  them 
identified  with  H  ephaestos,  bore  a  name  which  is  probably 
derived  from  the  root  ////,  "  to  open,"  especially  as  used  in 
the  ritual  term  "  opening  of  the  mouth."  In  the  inscrip- 
tions there  is  apparently  no  trace  of  any  mythological 
event  connected  with  this  name,  but  Porphyrius,^  who 
was  well  informed  in  Egyptian  matters,  tells  us  that  the 
god  came  forth  from  an  egg  which  had  issued  from  the 
mouth  of  Kneph.  Ptah  is  represented  as  a  bandaged 
mummy  ;  and  the  pedestal  upon  which  his  figure  was 
placed  was  shaped  like  a  cubit  rod,  which  is  the  sign  for 
'  EusEBius,  Prae^aratio  Evangelica,  iii.  11. 


32 


THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 


truth  and  just  measurement,  ||.  Generally  he  wears  a 
tassel  hanging  from  the  back  of  his  neck,  in  form  some- 
thing like  a  pendent  bell  shaped  flower,  ^.  As  to  the 
significance  of  this  there  has  been  much  idle  conjecture, 
but  an  examination  of  the  more 
detailed  representations  shows  it  to 
be  here  nothing  more  than  the 
so  called  mendt}  generally  used 
as  a  counterpoise  to  prevent  the 
necklace  from  falling  too  low  in 
front.  The  inscriptions  afford  no 
warrant  for  ascribing  to  it  any 
mythological  significance  in  refer- 
ence to  the  god. 

In  Memphis,  where  Ptah  with 
Sekhet  and  Nefer  Tum  or  Imuthes 
formed  the  divine  triad,  he  was 
held  to  have  been  the  first  King 
of  Egypt  and  the  creator  of  the 
world,  and  therefore  bore  the  titles  : 
"  Father  of  the  mighty  fathers  (the 
other  gods),  father  of  the  begin- 
nings, he  who  created  the  sun  &g<g 
and  the  moon  egg."  A  bas  relief 
at  Philae,  with  an  accompanying 
and  explanatory  inscription,  dis- 
plays him  in  his  composite  form 
of  Ptah  Tatunen  turning  the  egg 
of    sun    or    moon    upon    a    potter's   wheel.      He   is   also 


FIG.    27. — PTAH.      (L.    D.     III. 
143.  «•) 

Karnak,  Hypostyle  Hall,  XlXth 
Dynasty. 


'  Compare  below,  p.  295. 


PTAH   TATUNEN. 


^33 


called  the  "  creator  of  his  own  image,  he  who  created 
himself,  who  establishes  truth,  king  of  both  lands,  lord  of 
heaven,"  etc.  In  the  Book  of  the  Dead  it  is  stated  that  he 
performs  the  ceremony  of  "opening  the  mouth"  for  the 
dead,  as   he   had    once   performed  it  for  the  dead   gods  ; 


FIG.    28. — PTAH    TATUr 


(ROSELLINI,    "mON.    del    CULTO,"    PL.    21.) 

Philae,  Roman. 


but  in  all  likelihood  this  function  of  his  was  merely  evolved 
out  of  his  name. 

Ptah  is  often  found  in  combination  with  other  deities. 
Thus  there  were  Pta/i  dten  en  pet,  "  Ptah  the  sun  disk  of 
heaven,"  a  sun  god  of  whom  it  is  said  "  he  enlightens  the 
earth  with  his  rays";  Ptah  Nu,  "the  father  of  the  gods,"  a 
form  of  manifestation  of  the  primeval  waters;  Ptah  Hdpi, 


134  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

"  Ptah  the  Nile,"  who  sent  the  inundation,  and  by  its 
agency  exhibited  his  creative  powers. 

Ptah  Tan  en  is  another  of  these  composite  deities, 
and  combines  Ptah  with  the  somewhat  rare  god  Tanen 
or  Tatunen,  who  appears  to  have  been  an  earth  god,  a 
counterpart  of  Seb.  Ptah  Tanen,  however,  is  not  infrequent. 
We  find  him,  for  example,  at  Abu  Simbel,  where  he  is 
accounted  the  father  of  Rameses  II.,  and  an  inscription 
says :  "  So  saith  Ptah  Tanen,  wearing  the  high  feathers, 
equipped  with  two  horns  ;  he  who  begets  the  gods  every 
day,  *  I  am  thy  {i.e.  Rameses  II.'s)  father,  who  begot  thee 
as  a  god  to  make  thee  King  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt 
in  my  place ;  I  gave  unto  thee  the  lands  which  I  created.' " 
The  figure  of  the  god  here  referred  to  is  that  of  Ptah, 
except  for  the  addition  of  a  headdress  consisting  of  two 
horns  and  two  ostrich  feathers,  i^,  symbols  of  the  truth 
and  justice  ascribed  to  him  as  attributes.  In  his  hand 
is  a  sceptre,  or  occasionally  a  scourge,  J^ ;  but  in  the 
latter  case  we  have  to  do  with  a  further  combination,  in 
which  the  god  is  connected  with  the  familiar  forms — 

Ptah  Osiris,  Ptah  Sokaris,  or  Ptah  Sokar  Osiris, 
which  were  generally  supposed  to  be  incarnate  in  the  Apis 
bull  at  Memphis,  and  are  the  subjects  of  innumerable 
texts.  As  to  the  elements  of  this  composite  deity,  Osiris 
is  the  well  known  god  of  the  dead,  while  of  Sokaris — 
Egyptian  Seker — to  whom  we  have  already  referred  on 
p.  92,  in  dealing  with  the  Sun's  passage  through  the 
Underworld,  little  is  known.  He  seldom  appears  except 
in  combination,  and  has  then  almost  entirely  lost  his 
original  nature.     He  was  primarily  a  sun  god,  the  incarna- 


SOKARIS. 


135 


tion  of  which  was  kept  in  the  sacred  bark  heniiA.     The 

bark  is  represented  as  standing  on  a  pedestal,  <-S\d ;  the 

stern  is  adorned  with  the  head  of  a  gazelle,  and  a  disk 

crowned  hawk  which  represents  Sokaris  himself  is  perched 

upon  the  cabin.     At  the  festival  of  the  god  ^  his  bark  was 

borne  in  solemn  procession  round  the  walls  of  the  temple 

of  Sokaris.     It  was,  of  course,  in  Memphis  that  this  festival 

was    celebrated   with   the   greatest 

pomp,  but  it  was  also  held  in  other 

religious  centres  with  certain  local 

modifications,  such  as  adding  the 

Sekti  bark  to  the  procession.     The 

festival    was    connected    with   the 

winter    solstice,    with    the    "  little 

sun,"   as    the    Egyptians  called   it 

at    that   time.      In  the   Ptolemaic 

period   it   fell   on  the    morning  of 

the  26th  Khoiak  (22nd  December), 

while    in    earlier    times    it  would 

seem    to   have   been   held   in    the 

evening.    An  Egyptian  text  states, 

"  The  Sun  is  great  as  Horus,  the 

Sun  is  little  as  Sokaris,"  but  this 

idea  was  of  later  growth,  and  arose 

at  a  time  when  it  was  sought  to 


FIG.  29. 
SOKAR  OSIRIS,     (l.  D.  III.  72.) 
From  Stela  of  Amenophis  III. 


at  Thebes. 

safeguard  the  individualities  of  the  various  solar  deities 
by  associating  each  with  an  appearance  of  the  sun  at  a 
particular  time  of  the  day  or  year,  whereas  originally  Ra, 


1  For  the   festival   see   Brugsch   in   Revue  Egyptologiqiie, 
pp.  42  et  seq. 


36 


THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 


Horus,  and  Sokaris  had  all  the  same  significance  and  were 
simply  sun  gods.  The  sophistry  in  these  attributions  is 
moreover  obvious  from  the  fact  that  another  distinction 
between  Sokaris  and  Ra  was  proposed,  the  former  being 
differentiated  as  the  god  of  the  sun  at  night.  It  was  this 
interpretation  which  led  to  the  combination  of  Sokaris 
with  Osiris,  King  of  the  Under- 
world. Moreover  he  gradually  be- 
came the  god  Kar  ^^oyj]v  of  the 
Memphite  necropolis,  where  his 
name  still  survives  in  that  of  the 
village  of  Saqqarah.  Sokaris  is 
usually  represented  as  hawk  headed 
like  Ra,  but  without  the  solar  disk, 
and  bearing,  besides  the  sceptre, 
the  scourge  and  crook  carried  by 
Osiris  as  symbols  of  his  rule. 

These  forms  of  Ptah  com- 
pounded with  Osiris  and  Sokaris 
united  the  attributes  of  the  three 
gods';  the  resulting  deity  was  at 
once  creator  of  the  world,  Sun  god, 
and  king  of  the  dead,  and  became 
the  centre  of  conceptions  of  a 
pantheistic  ruling  and  embracing  of 
all  things,  and  of  such  thoughts  as  those  expressed  in  the 
Hymn  to  Amen  Ra  (pp.  in  ct  scq.).  This  Ptah  was,  how- 
ever, more  closely  associated  with  life  in  the  world  to  come 
than  with  the  characteristics  of  a  solar  deity,  whereas  the 
reverse  was  the  case  with  Amen  Ra.    Ptah  has  no  essential 


FIG.  30.  — ONE  OF  THE  KHNU- 

Mu.    (arundale  and  bo 

NOMI,    GALL.    VII.    lO.) 

From  Statuette  in  British 
Museum. 


THE   KHNUMU. 


137 


connexion  whatever  with  the  Greek  Hephaestos  ;  so  far  as 
the  evidence  of  the  inscriptions  goes,  he  was  never  a  fire  god, 
as,  arguing  from  this  identification,  it  has  been  thought. 
The  only  grounds  for  the  comparison  appear  to  be  that 
Ptah  was  described  as  a  modeller,  and  that  his  close  fitting 
cap  is  suggestive  of  that  of  a  smith. 

In  the  work  of  creation  Ptah  had  been  helped  by  the 
Khnumu,  "the  modellers,"  who 
were  generally  counted  as  his  chil- 
dren, although  later  as  those  of  Ra. 
They  were  represented  as  dwarfs, 
with  big  heads,  crooked  legs,  very 
long  arms,  and  long  moustaches  ^  : 
grotesque  figures  which,  as  Hero- 
dotus tells  us,^  excited  the  derision 
of  Kambyses  in  the  temple  of  He- 
phaestos at  Memphis.  Countless 
little  glazed  earthenware  figures  of 
these  gods  are  found  in  Egyptian 
tombs  ;  for  even  as  once  the 
Khnumu  had  helped  in  the  mak- 
ing of  the  world,  so  would  they 
help  to  reconstruct  in  all  its 
members  the  body  of  the  dead 
man  in  whose  tomb  they  were  laid. 

Sekhet  was   recognized    in    Memphis   as   the   wife   of 

Ptah  and  the  mother  of  Nefer  Tum  or  Imuthes.     She  is 

represented  as  a  lioness  headed  woman  crowned  with  the 

'  Query,  snakes  ?    (Trans.) 

-  Herodotus,  iii.  2,7  •  cf.  Wiedemann,  Herodot's  Zweztes  Buck, 
p.  2xb. 


FIG.  31 

SEKHET.       (L.  D.  III.  201,  rf.) 

Specs  at  Gebel  Silsileh,  XlXth 
Dynasty. 


138 


THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 


solar  disk  and  uraeus  serpent.  Broadly  speaking,  she  is  one 
in  nature  with  other  feline  headed  goddesses  :  the  lioness 
headed  Tefnut,  Mut  of  Thebes,  Pakht  of  the  Speos 
Artemidos,  and  the  cat  or  sometimes  lioness  headed  Bast 
of  Bubastis — all  of  whom  represented  the  variable  power 
of  the  sun,  from  genial  warmth  to  scorching  heat.  Thus 
a  Philae  text  states  in  reference  to 
I  sis  Hathor,  who  there  personified 
all  goddesses  in  one :  "  Kindly  is 
she  as  Bast,  terrible  is  she  as  Sek- 
het."  As  conqueror  of  the  enemies 
of  the  gods  Sekhet  carries  a  knife 
in  her  hand,  for  she  it  was  who, 
under  the  name  of  the  Eye  of  Ra, 
entered  upon  the  task  of  destroying 
mankind.^  Other  texts  represent 
her  as  ancestress  of  part  of  the 
human  race." 

Nefer  Tum,  whom  the  local 
myths  represent  as  the  son  of 
Sekhet,  of  Pakht,  or  of  Bast,  is 
in  the  Book  of  the  Dead  an 
unimportant  deity  mentioned  in 
connexion  with  the  doctrine  of 
immortality.  He  was  figured  as  a  man  crowned  with 
an  upspringing  lotus  flower,  a  symbol  of  the  resurrection 
and  of  his  power  to  grant  continuance  of  life  in  the  world 
to  come.    At  a  late  epoch,  from  about  the  XXVIth  dynasty 


FIG.  32. 

NEFER  TUM,    (l.  D.  III.  204,  C.) 

Tombof  Seti  II. 


See  pp.  59  e^  seq. 

Cf.  Lefebure,  Toinbeau  de  Seti  /.,  ii.,  pis.  4,  5. 


IMHETEP. 


139 


onwards,  large  numbers  of  his  statuettes  were  made  in 
bronze  and  in  glazed  ware ;  but  beyond  this  fact  we  have 
no  precise  knowledge  of  the  reasons  for  his  special  worship 
at  this  period.  At  any  rate,  the  importance  of  Nefer  Tum 
was  much  less  than  that  of 
Imuthes,  who  more  usually 
occupies  his  place  in  the 
Memphite  triad. 

The  name  of  IMHETEP 
signifies  "  he  who  comes  in 
peace "  ;  the  Greeks  tran- 
scribed it  Imuthes,  and 
likened  him  to  Asklepios. 
He  is  represented  as  a  young 
man  wearing  a  close  fitting 
cap.  In  the  Underworld 
his  functions  also  related  to 
human  immortality,  while 
on  earth  he  cured  men  of 
their  diseases  by  means  of 
medicine  and  of  magic.  He 
was  generally  regarded  as 
a  learned  deity,  and,  in  the 
attitude  of  reading  a  half 
opened  papyrus  roll  spread 


FIG.    33. — IMHETEP. 
(statuette    in    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 


out  upon  his  knees,  in  which  he  is  frequently  depicted,  he 
seems  to  be  performing  the  office  of  chief  kher  heb,  i.e. 
chief  of  those  priests  whose  office  it  was  to  recite  funerary 
prayers  and  formulas.'  Small  bronze  statuettes  of  the  god 
'  Cf.  below,  pp.  236-7. 


140 


TPIE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 


are  very  often  found,  and  are  generally  remarkable  for  taste- 
ful execution  ;  nearly  all  date  from  Saite  and  Greek  times, 
when  the  worship  of  Imuthes  was  much  affected  in  Egypt. 
Neith  is  a  goddess  frequently  mentioned  by  the  Greeks  ; 
she,  Osiris,  and  Horus  formed  the  triad  of  Sais.^  She  is 
named  in  some  of  the  oldest  inscriptions,  but  did  not  attain 
to  any  prominence  until  the  time 
of  the  XXV Ith  Dynasty,  which 
originated  from  Sais  ;  but  even  then 
her  real  influence  did  not  extend 
beyond  the  Delta.  She  is  repre- 
sented as  a  woman  with  the  green 
face  and  hands  characteristic  of 
deities  of  the  Underworld.  As  a 
warrior  she  is  generally  figured 
with  bow  and  arrows,  and  it  was 
S      //  I  J  \  owing    to    this    circumstance   that 

the  Greeks  identified  her  with 
Athene.  She  wears  the  crown  of 
Lower  Egypt.  The  ideogram  for 
her  name  is  the  weaver's  shuttle, 
a  device  which  the  Libyans  wove 
into  their  clothing  and  tattooed 
upon  their  arms,  so  that  she  would  seem  to  have  been 
originally  a  Libyan  goddess.^  In  Egyptian  mythology  she 
ranks  as  m.other  of  the  gods  and  of  Ra  in  particular,  and 
hence,  even  in  the  XVI I  Ith  Dynasty,  Sais  is  called  the  abode 
of  the  mother  of  the  gods.     Subsequently  she  was  confused 

'  Cf.  Mallet,  Le  Culte  de  Neit  a  Sais,  Paris,  1889. 
-  On  the  Libyan  origin  of  Neith  cf.  Petrie,  A'agada  and  Ballas, 
p.  64.     (Trans.) 


FIG.  34. 

NEITH.    l(wiLKINSON,  NO.  5  ID.) 


NEKHEBIT   AND   UAZIT. 


141 


with  Isis,  and  took  the  place  of  the  latter  in  the  Osirian 
myth.  The  monuments  describe  the  festivals  of  Sais,  of 
which  Herodotus  also  gives  an  account,  and  which  were 
dedicated    principally    to    Neith,    as    the    ordinary   feasts 

of  Isis.  I  »ri 


FIG.    35. NEKHEBIT.       (WILKINSON,    PL.    XL.) 

Nekhebit  and  I^AZIT  are  often  set  over  against  each 
other  in  the  inscriptions  as  tutelary  goddesses  of  Upper 
and  Lower  Egypt ;  little  more  is  known  of  either  goddess. 

The   chief   seat   of  the   former  was   at    El 

Kab,   and    the  Greeks   identified    her   with 

Eileithyia,    the 

goddess  of 
birth.  She  was  usually  re- 
presented as  a  vulture  hover- 
ing over  the  king.  Uazit 
was  more  particularly  wor- 
shipped in  the  Delta  ;  she 
was  the  Buto  of  the  Greeks, 
who  compared  her  to  Leto 
and  ascribed  oracles  to  her. 
She  is  represented  either  as  a  winged  serpent  or  as  a 
woman.  Occasionally,  when  Nekhebit  and  Uazit  are 
named  together,  both  take  the  same  form  :  as  v/inged  uraei, 


FIG.    36. 
UAZIT.       (WILKINSON,    PL.    XLI.j 


14- 


THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 


vultures,  or  women.  In  the  Osirian  myth  Buto  was  the 
guardian  of  Horus,  whom  Isis  gave  into  her  charge  while 
she  went  forth  to  seek  the  body  of  Osiris/ 

MaA.t/  the  daughter  of  Ra,  is  the  Themis  of  the  Greeks. 
She  was  figured  as  a  woman  wearing  upon  her  head  an 
ostrich  feather,  the  symbol  of  truth.  She  was  the  goddess 
of  Truth  and  Justice,  and  hence  was  oc- 
casionally represented  with  bandaged  eyes, 
since  Justice  judges  without  respect  of 
persons.  In  the  Underworld  she  was  pre- 
sent at  the  weighing  of  the  heart.  She  is 
mentioned  in  some  of  the  oldest  texts  ; 
it  was  esteemed  an  honour  to  be  one  of 
her  priests ;  and  gods  and  kings  of  all 
periods  professed  that  they  lived  by  and 
from  her.  Yet  she  has  no  place  in  myth- 
ology. 

Hathor  also  was  a  goddess  of  whom 
much  mention    is    made,   but    no   distinct 
myth  '  related.      Her     name     means     the 
tljl^  "  Abode  of  Horus,"  and  is  ideographically 

written  by  a  sign  consisting  of  the  ground 
plan  of  a  fortress  and   a    standing   hawk 
She  was  the  goddess   of 


FIG.  37. 

MAA.T.  (l.  D.  III. 
223,  C.) 

Stela  in  Hammamat 
Valley,  XXth  Dyn- 
asty. 


within  it. 


love  and  joy,  to  whom  many  festivals  were 
dedicated,  and  whose  magnificent  temple 
at  Dendcrah  is  still  comparatively  uninjured.  Here  she  was 
esteemed  the  sum  and  substance  of  feminine  godhead,  and 


Wiedemann,  HerodoVs  Zweites  Buck,  p.  558. 
Wiedemann,  Aitnales  die  Miisce  Gicimet,  x.,  pp.  581  et  secj. 


HATHOR. 


143 


all  goddesses  were  considered  as  forms  or  attributes  of 
Hathor  worshipped  under  different  names,  so  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  priests  of  Denderah,  all  prayers  to  them 
were  in  reality  addressed  to    Hathor. 

(Another  goddess  bearing  the  same  name  and  entitled 
Lady  of  the  Underworld  was  of  independent  origin.  She 
sometimes  took  the  place  of  Nut  in 
giving  water  to  the  souls  of  the  dead 
from  the  midst  of  a  sycomore.  Of  in- 
dependent origin  were  also  the  seven 
Hathors  who  are  said  in  the  inscrip- 
tions to  help  the  queen  at  childbirth 
and  who  play  the  part  of  fairy  god- 
mothers in  the  tales.) 

Hathor  is  generally  represented  as 
a  woman,  sometimes  with  the  ears, 
the  horns,  or  even  the  head  of  a  cow, 
that  being  the  animal  sacred  to  her. 

Sebak,  the  Sukhos  of  the  Greeks,^ 
was  represented  either  in  the  likeness 
of  his  sacred  animal,  the  crocodile,  or 
else  as  crocodile  headed.  Two  distinct 
deities  were  comprised  under  this 
name.  First,  there  was  Sebak  a  sun 
god,  who  was  usually  combined  with 
Ra  and  especially  worshipped  at 
Ombos,  where  the  sun  god  Aroeris  was  the  local  deity. 
And,  secondly,  there  was  Sebak  the  counterpart  of  Osiris. 
According  to  certain  texts  at  Denderah,  Osiris  was  wor- 
'  See  illustration,  p.  192. 


FIG.  38. 

HATHOR.    (l.D.  hi.  12^,5.) 

Karnak,  Hypostyle  Hall, 
XlXth  Dynasty. 


144 


THE    CHIEF    DEITIES. 


shipped  under  the  name  of  Sebak  in  the  Libyan  nome, 
and  especially  in  the  city  of  Apis  ;  while  a  myth  of  Upper 
Egypt  relates  that  it  was  upon  the  back  of  a  crocodile  that 
the  body  of  Osiris  was  borne  to  Philae.     But  Sebak  was 


FIG.    39.- -SEBAK.       (statuette    IN    BERLIN    MUSIUM.) 

also  occasionally  reckoned  as  an  evil  deity.  The  croco- 
diles sacred  to  him  were  held  to  be  the  associates  of  Set 
in  the  Underworld,  and  men  sought  deliverance  from 
them    on    earth    by    means    of    incantations.     Although 


HAPI. 


145 


throughout  a  considerable  part  of  the  country  fear  of  the 
god  to  whom  the  creatures  belonged  prevented  their  being 
regularly  hunted  down,  nevertheless  in  districts  where  the 
worship  of  Sebak  did  not  prevail,  this  sport  was  a  favourite 
pastime,  especially  among  the  nobles  of  the  Old  Kingdom. 
Hapi,  or  the  Nile,  was  the  subject  of  one  of  the  great 
national  cults,  and  in  his  honour  the 
largest  number,  or  at  any  rate  the 
most  widely  observed,  of  the  Egyp- 
tian festivals  were  celebrated.  As 
Libanius^  tells  us,  the  god  was  sup- 
posed to  be  so  exacting  in  regard  to 
these  solemnities  that,  if  his  feast 
was  not  kept  rightly,  he  refused 
to  grant  a  favourable  inundation. 
Magnificent  temples  were  raised  to 
him  at  Nilopolis,  near  Memphis, 
at  Heliopolis,  and  other  places,  and 
were  richly  endowed  by  the  kings. 
The  god  of  the  river  was  represented 
as  a  fat  man  with  the  breasts  of  a 
woman,  to  symbolize  fertility,  and 
his  worshippers  thought  to  honour 
him  by  their  own  effeminacy.  On  his 
head  was  a  crown  of  flowers.  Some- 
times he  was  resolved  into  the  Nile  of  Upper  and  the  Nile  of 
Lower  Egypt,  the  lotus  being  considered  emblematic  of  the 


FIG.    40. 

HAPI.       (l..  D.  III.    175,  d.) 

Stela  at  Gebel  Silsileh, 
Rameses  II. 


1  Oratio  ;pro  Templis.  References  to  the  Nile  by  the  ancient 
writers  are  collected  by  Jablonski,  Pantheon  Aegyptiorum,  iv., 
pp.  140  et  seq. 

10 


146  THE   CHIEF   DEITIES. 

former  and  the  papyrus  of  the  latter  ;  a  design  consisting  of 
both  plants  tied  together  formed  a  favourite  subject  for  the 
decoration  of  the  royal  throne,  as  typifying  the  king's  rule 
over  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  ^Ej-  Sometimes  the  person- 
ality of  Hapi  was  still  further  subdivided,  and  every  nome 
had  its  Nile  god  with  a  more  or  less  complete  individuality. 
A  recognized  Egyptian  method  of  presenting  to  the  eyes 
a  picture  of  all  Egypt  doing  homage  to  Pharaoh  was  to 
draw  a  procession  of  the  Nile  gods  following  each  other 
in  single  file  and  presenting  their  gifts  to  the  king.  Hapi 
had  as  his  associate  deities  the  god  Ka,  "father  of  the  gods," 
who  bore  a  frog's  head  surmounted  by  a  scarabaeus  ;  the 
gods  Hu,  Zefa,  and  Resef,  who  collectively  represented 
food  or  plenty  ;  NeperA,  the  goddess  of  grain  ;  and  the 
snake  headed  or  snake  bodied  Rennut,  goddess  of  the 
harvest. 

There  are  many  hymns  in  praise  of  the  Nile  god  and 
all  his  benefactions  to  Egypt ;  and  more  especially  of  his 
inundation.  The  texts  are  found  on  papyri,  on  stelae,  and 
on  the  walls  of  cliffs,  and  their  contents  are  often  supposed 
to  be  spoken  by  the  king.  The  following  are  some  of  the 
principal  passages  of  one  such  hymn,  which  was  engraved 
upon  the  rocks  at  Gebel  Silsileh  in  Upper  Egypt  by  com- 
mand of  Rameses  II. ;  and  in  duplicate  by  command  of  his 
son  and  successor  Merenptah  ;  and  again  by  Rameses  1 11.^ 
They  will  serve  to  show  the  general  manner  and  style  of 
these  hymns  in  their  most  interesting  form. 

"  The  living  and  beautiful  Nile  who  loveth  Nu,  the  father 
of  the  gods  and  of  the  divine  cycle,  he  who  dwelleth  in  the 
•  Cf.  Stern,  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1873,  PP- 129  et  seq. 


HYMN    TO   THE   NILE.  147 

river  ;  Plenty  {M),  Riches  {ka\  Food  {resef, — determined 
by  the  signs  for  fowl  and  fish — )  of  Egypt,  who  maketh  all 
men  to  live  by  his  riches  {ka\  who  is  venerable  upon  his 
path,  who  hath  plenty  (////)  at  his  fingers.  Men  rejoice  at 
his  coming.  Thou  art  alone,  thou  createdst  thyself,  none 
knoweth  the  place  in  which  thou  art  (the  source  or  spring 
in  which  the  Nile  was  supposed  to  dwell).  On  the  day 
when  thou  comest  forth  from  thyself  (the  beginning  of  the 
inundation),  then  is  every  one  full  of  joy.  Thou  art  lord 
of  many  fish  and  of  gifts  ;  thou  givest  food  {resef, — fowl 
and  fish  as  determinative — )  unto  Egypt.  The  divine  cycle 
knoweth  not  where  thou  art.  Thou  art  its  life,  for  at  thy 
coming  their  offerings  increase,  their  altar  is  filled  with 
plenty,  they  shout  for  joy  at  thine  appearing.  Thou  dost 
provide  for  us  that  which  is  needful  that  men  may  live, 
even  as  Ra  when  he  ruled  this  land." 

Then  follow  a  eulogy  of  the  king  and  his  command  to 
institute  two  festivals  in  honour  of  the  Nile,  "  father  of  all 
the  gods,  prince  of  the  waters,  who  feedeth  Egypt,  from 
whose  rising  come  plenty,  and  riches,  and  life  to  all." 


CHAPTER    VI. 

FOREIGN    DEITIES. 

"  I  ''HE  Egyptians  did  not  exclude  foreign  deities  from 
-*-  their  pantheon.  They  never  questioned  the  divinity 
of  the  gods  of  the  races  with  which  they  came  in  contact, 
but  accepted  it  in  each  case  as  an  estabHshed  fact.  To 
them  an  exceptionally  powerful  nation  was  in  itself  a 
proof  of  that  nation's  possession  of  an  exceptionally 
mighty  god,  whom  the  dwellers  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile 
were  therefore  eager  to  receive  into  the  ranks  of  Egyptian 
deities,  that  they  might  gain  his  protection  for  themselves 
by  means  of  prayers  and  offerings,  and  at  the  same  time 
alienate  his  affections  from  his  native  land.  The  acquisition 
of  a  god  necessarily  involved  the  acquisition  of  his  king- 
dom ;  for  to  Egyptian  thought,  as  indeed  to  that  of  the 
old  Oriental  world  in  general,  a  war  between  two  nations 
was  primarily  a  war  between  their  gods,  and  the  people 
without  a  powerful  god  was  the  sure  prey  of  a  neighbour 
more  fortunate  in  this  respect.  Among  the  peoples  whose 
gods  the  Egyptians  had  opportunities  of  appropriating, 
the  Libyans,  the  Semitic  Asiatics,  and  the  Hamitic  and 
negro  races  of  Ethiopia  were  especially  plundered. 

It  is  probable  that  certain    Libyan    gods   had    already 
been  appropriated   at  the  beginning  of  Egyptian   history, 
in  times  of  which  wc  have  no  historical  tradition  ;  among 
148 


LIBYAN   AND   ASIATIC   DIVINITIES.  1 49 

them  apparently  were  Bast  and  Neith.  These  two 
goddesses  were  worshipped  in  the  western  parts  of  the 
Delta,  where  the  majority  of  the  population  were  Libyan  ; 
but  even  under  the  dynasties  which  sprang  from  Bubastis 
and  Sais,  the  chief  centres  of  their  worship,  they  never 
attained  to  importance  throughout  the  rest  of  the  land, 
especially  where  the  population  was  more  purely  Egyptian, 
as  in  Upper  Egypt. 

For  the  Egyptian  appropriation  of  Asiatic  divinities  ^  we 
have  better  historical  evidence.  Among  such  deities  Baal, 
Astarte,  Anta,  Reshpu,  and  Kedesh  call  for  special  notice. 

Baal,  the  Egyptian  Bdl,  first  became  known  to  the 
Egyptians  as  the  chief  god  of  nations  with  whom,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  New  Empire,  they  were  at  war  for 
centuries :  not  with  invariable  success.  It  was  in  the 
course  of  these  wars  that  the  worship  of  Baal  was  intro- 
duced into  Egypt,  and  the  Ramessides  had  a  special 
predilection  for  calling  themselves  as  brave  and  as  mighty 
as  Baal  in  heaven.  He  had  apparently  no  place  in 
Egyptian  mythology ;  but  since  his  name  in  writing  is 
usually  followed  by  the  image  or  by  the  sacred  animal  of 
the  god  Set,  there  would  appear  to  have  been  a  recognized 
affinity  between  the  two  gods,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  name  of  Baal  is  substituted  for  that  of  Set  in  one  of 
the  texts  of  Edfu  relating  to  the  legend  of  the  Winged 
^  The  collection,  elucidation,  and  comparison  of  all  the  information 
relating  to  these  deities  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  texts  is  a  great 
desideratum  in  Egyptology.  The  notices  of  Ed.  Meyer,  Zeitschr. 
d.  Deutsch.  Morg.  Gesch.,  xxi.,  pp.  "jitet  seq.,  are  too  defective  to  be 
considered  as  forming  an  authoritative  work  on  the  subject.  (W. 
Max  MtJLLER,  Asien  und Eurofa  tiach  Altaegyptischen  Dejtkmd- 
lern,  pp.  311  et  seg.,  has  specially  dealt  with  this  subject. — Trans.) 


ISO  FOREIGN    DEITIES. 

Sun  Disk.^  In  Egypt  Baal  was  regarded  as  a  god  of 
the  sky, — a  conception  which  fairly  corresponds  to  his 
original  nature, — and  as  a  great  but  essentially  a  destructive 
deity.  Broadly  speaking,  his  worship  was  confined  to  the 
eastern  part  of  the  Delta,  where  the  Semitic  population 
was  proportionately  large  :  his  chief  temple  was  in  the 
fortified  frontier  city  of  Tanis. 

ASTARTE  was  worshipped  in  several  Egyptian  temples.^ 
An  inscription  dating  from  the  XXIst  Dynasty  mentions 
a  priest  of  Memphis  who  served  both  her  and  the  moon- 
god  Ah  ;  and  in  Ptolemaic  times  a  small  chapel  dedicated 
to  her  stood  near  the  Serapeum.  It  must  have  been  either 
this  chapel  or  an  earlier  one  on  the  same  site  to  which,  by 
a  curious  misconception,  Herodotus  refers  as  the  temple  of 
the  "  strange  Aphrodite,"  whom  he  further  confounds  with 
the  Helen  of  Homer.  The  western  quarter  of  Tanis  was 
dedicated  to  Amen,  the  southern  to  Sutekh,  the  northern 
to  Buto,  and  the  eastern  to  Astarte,  to  whom  also  a 
temple  seems  to  have  been  established  not  far  from  Tanis, 
on  the  shores  of  the  Serbonian  lake.  In  magical  texts  she 
is  mentioned  along  with  Anta  as  a  goddess  who  "  conceives 
but  never  brings  forth."  In  the  treaty  made  between  the 
Kheta  (Hittites)  and  the  Egyptians,  she  appears  as  a 
national  goddess  of  the  Syrian  Kheta,  and  this  at  a  time 
when  her  worship  had  become  so  far  familiar  to  the 
dwellers  by  the  Nile  that  Rameses  II.  called  his  son  Mer- 
A(s)trot.t  after  her  ;  and  several  proper  names  compounded 
with  her  name  were  current.     She  found  but  a  late  entrance 

'  Naville,  Textes  rel.  au  Mythe  d' Horus,  pi.  4. 
2  Cf.  Wiedemann,  Herodofs  Zweites  Buck,  p.  433. 


ASTARTE — ANTA. 


151 


into  Egyptian  mythology  :  in  the  scenes  illustrative  of  the 
legend  of  the  Winged  Sun  Disk  ^  she  is  lioness  headed,  and, 
mounted  on  a  quadriga,  drives  her  horses  over  the  bodies  of 
the  foe.  She  is  entitled  "  lady  of  horses  and  of  chariots," 
and  this  designation  betrays  the  late  origin  of  the  mytho- 
logical episode  in  which  she  figures,  since  the  horse 
apparently  was  only 
introduced  into  Egypt 
in  the  time  of  the 
Hyksos,  and  never 
appears  in  any  of  the 
older  myths.  Refer- 
ence to  Astarte  is 
made  in  the  Osirian 
myth  as  related  by 
Plutarch,  but  there 
she  is  euhemeristi- 
cally  explained  to 
have  been  a  queen 
of  Byblos. 

Anta  is  named 
along  with  Astarte  in 
the  Kheta  treaty, 
whence  it  would  seem  that  she  also  was  a  goddess  of  this 
Syrian  people.  She  figures  on  Egyptian  monuments  as 
"  lady  of  heaven  and  mistress  of  the  gods,"  with  helmet, 
shield,  and  lance,  and  swinging  a  battle  axe  in  her  left 
hand  ;  sometimes  she  is  represented  on  horseback.  She 
is  often  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  of  Rameses  II.  and 
1  Naville,  Textes  rel.  au  Mythe  d'Horiis,  pi,  13. 


FIG.    41. —  ANTA.       (PRISSE,    "  MON.,       PL.     2>T ■ 

Stela  in  British  Museum.    XXth  Dynasty. 


52 


FOREIGN    DEITIES. 


Rameses  III.,  both  of  them  warhke  princes,  and  the  latter 
even  gave  to  his  favourite  daughter  the  Semitic  name  of 
Bent  dntd,  "  daughter  of  Anta." 

Reshpu  is  represented  with  helmet  and  lance.  His 
Semitic  origin  is  obvious  from  the  outline  of  his  profile, 
and  he  corresponds  to  the  Phoenician  Resef,  who  was 
worshipped  both  in  Cyprus  and  in 
Carthage.  His  titles  "great  god, 
lord  of  heaven,  ruler  of  eternity, 
lord  of  might  in  the  midst  of  the 
divine  cycle,"  are  simply  borrowed 
from  Egyptian  divinities,  and  are 
useless  for  determining  his  nature. 

Kedesh  is  the  goddess  repre- 
sented as  accompanying  Reshpu. 
She  holds  flowers  in  her  right 
hand  and  a  serpent  in  her  left  ; 
usually  she  wears  as  her  headdress 
the  sun  disk  embraced  by  two 
horns,  and  she  stands  upon  the 
back  of  a  lion.  She  and  Ra, 
together  with  the  Egyptian  god 
Min,  were  grouped  into  a  triad ; 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact  she  was 
merely  goddess  of  the  city  of 
Kadesh,  the  capital  of  the  Syrian  confederation  of  the 
Kheta,  upon  whose  dominions  Rameses  H.  in  particular 
found  himself  obliged  to  make  war.  In  all  likelihood 
Kedesh  was  originally  a  local  modification  of  Astarte. 
On  Egyptian  stelae  of  the  XVII Ith  and  XlXth  Dynasties 


fig.  42,  —  reshpu.     (prisse 

"mon.,"pl.37.) 

.Stela  in  British  Museum. 

XXth  Dynasty. 


SEMITIC   INFLUENCE. 


153 


she  is  entitled  "  lady  of  heaven,  mistress  of  all  the  gods, 
eye  of  Ra,  who  has  none  like  unto  her,  daughter  of  Ra, 
ilca.t  eye  of  Turn,  beloved  of  the  Sun  god."  On  the 
same  monuments  prayers  are  also  addressed  to  her  for 
gifts  of  life  and  health,  and  after  extreme  old  age  a  good 
burial  in  the  west  of  Thebes,  the  latter  request  proving 
that  the  god  was  recognized 
in  the  capital  of  the  country. 

The  above  named  deities 
changed  neither  name  nor 
identity  by  their  transference 
to  Egypt ;  but  the  influ- 
ence of  Semitic  thought 
which  occasionally  prevailed 
there  had  a  far  wider  and 
more  profound  importance, 
and  effected  organic  trans- 
formations in  the  ideas  of 
the  Egyptians  as  to  the 
natures  of  their  own  national 
gods.  A  conspicuous  ex- 
ample   of    this     influence    is 

J.  -Ul  •  1       1        r  KEDESH.       (PRISSE,    "  MON.,"  PL.  37.) 

discernible     in      the     belief     in  Stela  in  British  Museum.     XXth  Dynasty. 

sacred  inanimate  objects  as  incorporations  of  deity,  par- 
ticularly stones,  the  Bethels  or  Betyls  which  are  known 
to  have  been  such  important  objects  of  adoration  among 
the  Semites  that  the  worship  of  them  was  carried  wherever 
Semitic  colonists  penetrated.  They  were  set  up  in  con- 
nexion with  Astarte  in  Paphos,  Apollo  in  Ambracia, 
Zeus   Teleios    in    Tegea   in   Arcadia,  and  in   many  other 


FIG.  43. 


154  FOREIGN    DEITIES. 

places  besides.  The  oracular  image  of  the  Oasis  of 
Jupiter  Ammon  was  a  stone  which  in  shape  is  said  to  have 
resembled  a  navel,  and  which  at  festivals  was  borne  in 
procession,  richly  decorated  with  jewels.  An  Egyptian 
origin  for  this  stone  as  the  representative  of  Amen 
is  impossible  ;  only  the  animal  incarnation,  in  a  ram, 
was  derived  from  Egypt  and  characteristic  of  it.  The 
second  symbol  of  the  deity  worshipped  in  the  Oasis  was 
introduced  in  all  likelihood  from  one  of  the  Phoenician 
settlements  on  the  north  African  coast,  between  which 
and  the  Oasis  an  active  connexion  always  subsisted.  The 
population  of  the  Oasis  was,  it  is  true,  but  half  Egyptian. 
A  similar  form  of  worship,  however,  was  established  in 
Egypt,  in  Heliopolis,  the  most  renowned  of  all  her 
temples  :  one  incorporation  of  the  Sun  god  of  Heliopolis 
was  a  stone  (pp.  16-17,  24).  The  form  of  the  stone  seems 
to  have  varied  with  the  course  of  time  ;  now  it  is  spoken 
of  as  a  pyramid  or  an  obelisk,  and  again  as  a  conven- 
tionalized column,  ri  or  |,  the  hieroglyphic  sign  which 
was  used  from  earliest  times  as  the  ideogram  for  An,  the 
name  of  the  city  of  Heliopolis.  As  reference  is  also 
occasionally  made  to  the  presence  of  a  similar  column 
in  other  sanctuaries,  this  form  of  worship  had  evidently 
commended  itself  to  the  colleges  of  priests,  owing  to 
the  influence  of  the  temple  at  Heliopolis. 

Another  Egyptian  god  who  was  occasionally  regarded 
as  incorporate  in  a  stone  was  Set.  This  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  the  sign  of  an  oblong  stone,  cmD,  is  the 
usual  determinative  of  his  name,  although  no  specific 
statements   on   the   point    have   been    found    in    the    in- 


TREE   WORSHIP.  155 

scriptions.       In    this  as   in  other   matters   relating   to  this 
god  Semitic  influences  had  undoubtedly  prevailed. 

Trees  were  also  worshipped  in  Egypt  as  well  as  stones, 
but  there  is  no  evidence  that  hill  worship  ever  obtained 
there.^  The  worship  of  springs  could  hardly  come  into 
consideration,  since  they  were  almost  entirely  lacking  in 
the  land,  and  the  worship  of  water  was  necessarily  confined 
to  that  of  the  Nile.  One  spring,  however,  there  was : 
that  near  Heliopolis,  and  this  was  dedicated  to  the  Sun 
god  (p.  1 8).  Special  instances  of  tree  worship  are  com- 
paratively rare.  In  Ptolemaic  times  a  systematic  attempt 
was  made  to  introduce  this  form  of  cult  into  the  temple  of 
every  nome  :  according  to  the  contemporary  lists  relating  to 
the  subject,  twenty-four  nomes  worshipped  the  Nile  acacia, 
seventeen  the  Corda  myxa  (?),  sixteen  the  Zizyphus  spina 
Christi,  while  other  trees,  such  as  the  sycomore,  the 
Juniperus  phoenicea,  and  the  Tamarix  nilotica^  are  named 
but  once  or  twice.  Ten  kinds  of  sacred  trees  are  here 
mentioned  in  all,  of  which  as  many  as  three  were  sometimes 
worshipped    in  the  same   nome."      But  the  connexion  of 

'  The  Ethiopian  kings  of  800— 700  B.C.  speak  of  the  hill  of  Gebel 
Barkal  as  the  "sacred  hill,"  but  it  is  not  clear  whether  the  hill 
was  considered  sacred  in  itself  or  only  on  account  of  the  rock  cut 
temple  at  its  base. 

Lefebure,  Miiseon,-iC\v.,  pp.  ,^i6  ei  seq.,  has  endeavoured  to  prove 
that  the  Egyptians  were  also  fire  worshippers,  but  the  illustrations 
which  he  adduces  only  show  that  fire  was  sometimes  regarded  as 
an  attribute  of  various  deities  whose  functions  were  compared  to  the 
action  of  fire,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  solar  deities,  and  so  on  ; 
but  that  the  Egyptians  were  genuine  fire  worshippers,  in  the  same 
sense  as  the  Iranians,  is  a  conclusion  which  cannot  be  drawn  from 
Egyptian  texts. 

-  Cf.  MOLDENKE,  Ueber  die  in  alfaeg  Tcxten  erzvaehnten 
Baeume,  pp.  8  et  seq. 


156 


FOREIGN    DEITIES. 


this  cult  with  the  main  worship  of  the  temple  was  very 
loose.  The  texts  do  occasionally  mention  the  sacred  tree 
of  Heliopolis  growing  near  the  spot  where  the  Apep 
serpent  was  slain  by  the  solar  cat  ;  out  of  which  also  the 


FIG.   44. — TUM,    SAFEKHT,    AND    THOTH    INSCRIBING    NAJIE    OF    RAMESES    II.    ON 
SACRED    TREE    OF    HELIOPOLIS.       (l.  D.  HI.   I69.) 

Temple  of  Rameses  II.  at  Gurnah. 

phoenix  arose,  and  on  its  foliage  Thoth,  or  else  Safekht/ 
the  goddess  of  learning,  inscribed  the  name  of  the  king, 

'  For  the  reading  of  the  name  of  this  goddess  cf.  Chassinat, 
Rec.  de  Travaux,  xvii.,  p.  55. 


TREE    WORSHIP. 


157 


who  by  this  act  was  endowed  with  eternal  Hfc.  We  also 
read  of  the  sacred  tree  which  grew  over  the  chest  con- 
taining the  body  of  Osiris/  of  the  tree  in  the  west  in  which 
dwelt  the  goddess  Nut  or  the  goddess  Hathor  (pp.  143, 
233),  and  of  others.  It  is,  however,  a  curious  fact  that 
the  palm,  a  tree  otherwise  so  intimately  associated  with 
Egyptian  thought  and  feeling,  may  be  said  to  have  no 
place  in  this  cult.^  The  belief  of  Porphyrius^  that  the 
Egyptians  deemed  it  wrong  to  injure  vegetation  was  the 
outcome  of  a  late  idea  founded  on  pantheistic  views. 

Although  the  worship  of  vegetable  life*  did  not,  to  any 
appreciable  extent,  affect  the  Egyptian  religion  as  dis- 
played in  the  temple  inscriptions,  nevertheless  I  should 
hesitate  to  say  that  it  was  not  indigenous.  In  the  same 
way  little  account  is  taken  of  animal  worship  by  the 
Egyptian  texts,  and  yet  we  know  from  the  testimony  of 
Greek  writers  that  it  played  a  considerable,  if  not  the 
principal,  part  in  the  popular  religion.  Now  these  writers 
were  more  familiar  with  the  people  than  with  the  priest- 
hood and  the  upper  classes,  and  in  Egypt,  as  elsewhere, 
the  beliefs  of  the  great  mass  of  the  nation  were  not  in 
precise  accordance  with  the  doctrine  of  the  priests.  Due 
reverence  and  tribute  were  paid  to  the  gods  of  the  great 

'  Cf.  Deveria,  MemoireSy  i.,  pp.  123  et  seq. 

*  It  is  only  very  occasionally  that  the  palm  tree  is  substituted  for 
the  sycomore  of  Nut,  as  in  the  has  relief  from  the  tomb  of  Naai, 
now  in  the  Egyptian  Museum  at  Berlin,  No.  7322. 

3  PORPHYRius,  De  Abst.,  i.  21. 

^  For  a  comprehensive  treatise  on  tree  worship,  or  the  cult  of 
vegetable  life,  based  primarily  upon  the  well  known  investigations 
of  Mannhardt,  see  J.  G.  Frazer  :  The  Golden  Bough,  London, 
1890. 


158  FOREIGN    DEITIES. 

temples,  but  it  was  to  the  minor  divinities^  that  the 
people  turned  in  their  personal  joys  and  sorrows,  and  to 
whom  they  addressed  their  prayers  and  their  complaints. 
Recent  investigations  have  shown  how  this  condition  of 
things  developed  among  the  Indo-Germanians,  more  par- 
ticularly among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  ; '  and  in  Egypt 
it  was  not  otherwise.  Here  too  it  was  the  first  impulse 
of  the  peasant  to  present  his  humble  petitions  to  his  own 
rustic  deity  rather  than  to  the  god  who  dwelt  within  the 
city  in  his  magnificent  abode.  Among  such  deities  were 
many  of  the  sacred  animals,^  and  the  sacred  trees  must 
also  be  placed  in  the  same  category.  The  shade  giving 
sycomore  was  the  special  object  of  such  homage,  and 
it  is  peasants  who  are  represented  on  the  monuments  as 
paying  their  devotions  to  that  tree,  even  as  it  was  the  lower 
orders  of  the  people  who  zealously  offered  their  prayers  and 
dedicated  stelae  to  the  sacred  beasts.  The  upper  classes 
among  the  Egyptians  would  look  down  upon  these  rustic 
and  plebeian  deities  with  the  same  contempt  as  was  felt  by 
the  cultured  Greeks,  and  Romans  for  the  uncouth  gods  of 
the  countryfolk.  Few  of  them  were  admitted  within  the 
great  temples,  and  to  such  as  gained  admission  very 
insignificant  places  were  usually  assigned  :  often  they  were 
deprived  of  their  essential  natures  and  merged  in  the  god 

'  "  Sondergotter "  (isolated  gods)  is  the  present  designation  in 
Germany. 

-  On  this  question  cf.  more  especially  the  excellent  work  by  H. 
USENER,  Gdtternamen,  Bonn,  1896. 

^  On  this  subject  see  Wiedemann,  Zum  Thierkult  der  alien 
Aegyfter,  in  Melanges,  Charles  de  Harlez,  Leyden,  1896,  pp.  372 
ct  seq. 


DEITIES   OF   AFRICAN    ORIGIN.  1 59 

of  the  temple,  either  as  his  incorporations,  his  attributes, 
or  his  symbols  ;  or  they  were  relegated  to  inferior  positions 
in  his  court  or  household.  So  far  as  we  can  judge,  the 
reception  of  tree  worship  into  temple  service  and  mythology 
was  always  the  result  of  a  compromise  :  the  priests  were 
compelled  to  make  concessions  to  the  faith  of  the  masses 
and  admit  into  the  temples  the  worship  of  the  people's 
divinities ;  but  they  did  so  grudgingly,  and  this  explains 
the  apparent  insignificance  of  the  official  cult  of  vegetation 
in  Egypt  as  compared  with  the  worship  of  the  great  gods 
and  their  cycles. 

The  representations  of  Libyan  and  Asiatic  deities  were 
almost  entirely  conformed  to  those  of  Egyptian  gods,  in 
physical  appearance,  attitude,  and  symbolism.  It  was 
otherwise  with  gods  of  African  origin,  which  outwardly 
resembled  the  negro  human  fetish  of  to-day,  and  were 
figured  as  deformed,  monstrously  fat,  hideous,  and  frightful ; 
whereas,  so  far  as  the  rules  of  Egyptian  sacred  art  admitted, 
the  true  Egyptian  gods  were  represented  in  conformity 
to  the  ideal. 

Bes  ^  was  the  most  important  of  the  African  gods.  He 
was  represented  as  a  bearded  dwarf  with  large  ears  and 
with  crooked  legs,  on  which  he  is  sometimes  resting  his 
.  He  is  dressed  in  the  hide  of  a  beast 
with  the  tail  hanging  down  behind  him,  and  wears  a  crown 
of  feathers  recalling  the  headdress  of  Anuki,  a  goddess 
worshipped  in  Nubia  (p.  131).  A  further  distinction 
between  Bes  and  the  Egyptian  gods  is  that  he  is  generally 

'  See  an  excellent  treatise  by  Krall  in  the  Jahrb.  d.  Wiener 
kunsth.  SammL,  ix.,  pp.  72  et  seq. 


i6o 


FOREIGN    DEITIES. 


drawn  in  full  face  while  they  are  ordinarily  presented  in 
profile.  Many  names  were  given  him,  such  as  Hait,  Ahti, 
Sepu,  Kherau,  in  later  times  especially,  but  these  implied 


FIG.    45. BES.       (L.    D.    IV.    83,    C.) 

Birth  House  of  Temple  of  Denderah.     Roman  Period. 

no  change  in  the  apprehension  of  his  nature.  His  usual 
name  was]  at  all  periods  Bes,  a  name  derived  from  the 
word  besa,  which  designates  one  of  the  great  felidae,  the 


BES. 


l6l 


Cynaeliinis  guttattis.  It  was  the  skin  of  this  beast  which 
formed  his  clothing,  and  most  probably,  he  was  named  after 
the    animal  in  which,    according  to    Egyptian    ideas,    he 


FIG.    46.  — BES.       (wooden    SPOON    IN    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 
XVIIIth  Dynasty. 

sometimes  became  incarnate.     The  worship  of  Bes  was  an 
ancient :  cult  ;  there  are  indications  that  it  was  known  in 

II 


l62  FOREIGN    DEITIES. 

the  Old  Kingdom,  and  certainly  it  was  in  force  at  the 
beginning  of  the  New  Kingdom  ;  while  from  the  time  of 
the  XXVIth  Dynasty  downward  it  became  so  popular  that 
many  proper  names  were  compounded  with  his  name ;  and 
this  fashion  was  transmitted  both  to  the  Greeks  in  Egypt 
and  to  the  Copts.  The  Copts  had  lost  all  sense  of  the 
meaning  of  the  word,  and  one  of  the  Christian  martyrs  of 
Alexandria  is  still  known  to  us  as  Besas.  Bes  was  known 
in  Roman  times  chiefly  by  means  of  his  oracle  at  Abydos, 
which  was  often  consulted  even  down  to  a  late  period. 
The  figure  of  Bes  supplied  a  subject  to  Alexandrian 
decorative  art,  and  found  besides  somewhat  extended 
application  in  the  Hellenistic  and  Phoenician.  This  ex- 
plains sufficiently  its  later  appearance  on  Arabian  coins, 
which,  however,  affords  no  proof  of  any  close  connexion 
between  the  Arabians  who  used  this  money  and  the  great 
centres  of  Bes  worship.^ 

One  of  the  oldest  representations  of  the  god  Bes  is 
found  in  a  bas  relief  at  Deir  el  Bahri,  in  a  temple  built  by 
Queen  Ramaka,  better  known  as  Queen  Hatshepsut,  about 
1600  B.C.  It  occurs  in  a  scene  relating  to  the  birth  of  the 
founder.  In  the  middle  of  the  top  register  is  the  royal 
mother,  sitting  in  a  chair,  and  holding  the  new  born  child 
in  her  arms.  Left  of  her  are  five  goddesses  who  have  ap- 
parently assisted  as  midwives,  each  holding  the  sign  of  life 
in  token  that  life  has  come  to  the  child  by  their  means ; 
among  them  are  Isis  and  Nephthys.  In  front  of  the  queen 
kneel  four  female  forms  waiting  to  attend  to  the  infant,  and 
to  its  ka,  born  at  the  same  time  ;  they  are  stretching  out 

'  Cf.  Erman,  Zeitschriftfi'tr  Nnmismatik,  ix.,  pp.  296  et  seq. 


r:-- 


41 


iARI,"    11.,    PL.    LI.) 


BES    IN    BIRTH   SCENES.  163 

their  hands  in  readiness  to  receive  the  former.  In  the  middle 
row  squat  three  human  headed,  four  crocodile  headed,  and 
one  ram  headed  demon,  each  of  them  presenting  the  sign  of 
life  to  the  child  ;  in  their  midst  are  symbols  signifying  that 
life,  stability,  eternal  duration,  shall  be  its  portion.  Immedi- 
ately below  these  symbols,  and  in  the  lowest  register,  are 
others  denoting  divine  protection,  and  the  sovereignty  to 
which  the  babe  is  destined  ;  on  either  side  of  them  are 
divinities,  mostly  in  attitude  of  invocation.  Two  are  hawk 
headed  ;  and  the  figure  of  a  third,  together  with  that  of  a 
third  jackal  headed  god,  doubtless  occupied  the  blank  space 
to  the  right  of  the  symbols.  The  hawk  headed  gods — 
Horus,  Amset,  and  Hapi,  according  to  the  Book  of  the 
Dead — are  the  souls  of  Pe,  the  temple  of  Buto,  and  were 
held  to  be  the  spirits  of  the  North  ;  the  jackal  headed 
figures — Horus,  DuAMUTEF,  and  KebehsenCtf — are  the 
souls  of  Nekheb,  that  is  the  spirits  of  the  South.  Thus 
the  homage  of  these  divinities  symbolically  expresses  the 
homage  of  Northern  and  Southern  Egypt  to  the  new  born 
Pharaoh.  Near  them  stand  the  god  Bes  and  the  goddess 
Taurt.  All|is  transacted  in  the  presence  of  Meskhent,  the 
goddess  of  birth,  who  is  shown  seated  on  her  throne.  The 
accompanying  texts  promise  the  new  born  princess  life, 
stability,  might,  health,  joy,  and  the  rule  over  Upper  and 
Lower  Egypt  on  the  throne  of  the  god  Horus.  The  subject 
of  this  scene  is  found,  similarly  treated,  in  a  bas  relief  in 
the  temple  of  Luxor  which  represents  the  birth  of  King 
Amenophis  1 11.^  There  is  a  similar  scene  in  a  temple 
of  Denderah,^  dating  from  about  the  time  of  Trajan  and 
*  Lepsius,  Denkmdler,  iii.  74.  ^  yj^-^,^  jy,  32^. 


164 


FOREIGN    DEITIES. 


representing  the  birth  of  the  Sun  god.  Here  Bes  is  a 
seated  divinity  with  the  name  Ahti.  In  Hke  connexion 
the  figure  of  Bes  appears  in  all  the  "  Birth  Houses "  of 
Egyptian  temples.  The  "  Birth  House  "  of  a  temple  was 
supposed  to  have  been  the  birthplace  of  the  god  of  the 
temple,  and  was  long  known  as  the  Typhonium,  because 
of  the  grotesque  figure  of  Bes  always 
to  be  found  upon  its  walls,  and  which 
was  held  to  represent  Typhon,  the 
god  of  evil.  But  this  view  was 
altogether  unwarranted,  and  was 
necessarily  relinquished  after  the 
decipherment  of  the  hieroglyphics. 

In  all  these  scenes  Bes  is  one  of 
the  divinities  attending  the  birth  of 
the  king,  or  of  the  Sun  god.  He 
is  also  shown  holding  Harpokrates, 
the  young  Sun  god,  upon  his  left 
arm  while  giving  him  food  with  his 
right  hand,  or  bearing  the  child  on 
his  shoulder.  But  his  services  to  the 
child  were  not  confined  to  supplying  it 
with  food  ;  he  had  also  to  provide  for 
its  amusement,  and  so  he  is  represented 
as  laughing  at  it,  dancing  grotesque  dances,  and  playing 
on  the  harp  before  it.  Thus,  gradually  he  came  to  be  con- 
sidered as  the  god  of  the  dance,  of  music,  and  of  jollity, 
a  part  to  which  he  seemed  predestined  even  by  his 
absurd  appearance.  Another  office  also  fell  to  him  as 
guardian    of   the    young    Sun    god  :    serpents    being    the 


FIG.    48. —  BES   AND    HAR- 
POKRATES.   (arundale 

AND      BONOMI,     PL.     23, 
FIG.  82.) 

Bronze  in  British  Museum. 
Roman  Period. 


FIG.    49.— SEPD.       (bronze    STATUETTE    IN    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 


THE   SOLAR    BES.  167 

chief  enemies  of  the  Sun  god,  Bes  was  therefore  the  foe 
of  serpents.  He  is  frequently  represented  as  gripping 
and  strangling  them  in  his  hands,  or  biting  them  to  bits, 
as  does  the  goddess  Taurt.  At  the  end  of  the  New 
Kingdom  he  was  fused  with  his  ward,  endowed  with  all 
the  attributes  of  the  young  Sun  god,  and  represented 
like  him  as  sitting  upon  a  lotus  flower  and  wearing  the 
side  lock  of  youth.  The  solar  lions  also  became  connected 
with  him,  and  he  was  regarded  as  one  with  the  god 
Sepd,  lord  of  the  east,  conqueror  of  the  hill  tribes  of  the 
Sinaitic  peninsula.  Ultimately  he  was  entirely  confused 
with  the  hawk  headed  Horus.  This,  as  well  as  his  identi- 
fication with  Amen  and  even  with  Osiris  Amen,  was  due 
to  the  prevailing  syncretism  of  the  Ptolemaic  period. 

As  a  solar  deity  Bes  was  god  of  the  east.  He  was 
therefore  lord  of  Punt,  i.e.  of  the  southern  countries  on 
both  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  in  later  times  of  Arabia 
in  particular,  the  supposed  home  of  the  Sun  god  and  of 
his  sacred  bird  the  phoenix.  This  comparatively  late  con- 
nexion of  Bes  with  the  land  of  Punt  is  no  argument  for 
his  Arabian  origin.  His  whole  appearance  and  attire 
point  rather  to  an  African  and  indeed  a  negro  country 
to  the  south  of  Egypt  as  the  place  from  which  he  sprang. 
In  the  early  days  of  Egyptian  history  negroes  appear 
to  have  dwelt  on  the  southern  frontiers  of  the  kingdom, 
but  afterwards  a  series  of  Hamitic  peoples  occupied  large 
territories  south  of  the  Egyptian,  the  negroes  having  been 
enslaved  or  driven  farther  to  the  south.  The  civilization 
of  these  Hamitic  peoples  was  dependent  on  that  of  the 
Egyptians  ;    they    therefore    venerated,    not    the    original 


l68  FOREIGN    DEITIES. 

African  conception  of  Bes,  but  the  form  which  was  then 
adored  in  Egypt,  only  they  often  represented  him  as  a 
full  grown  man  instead  of  as  a  dwarf. 

In  the  Underworld  Bes  appears  in  a  somewhat  different 
character.  Here,  though  on  purely  Egyptian  territory,  his 
dwarf  form  was  changed  into  that  of  a  full  grown  man, 
or  even  of  a  giant.  The  Bes  of  the  Underworld  was  an 
avenging  deity  :  his  distorted  face  inspired  terror  ;  he 
menaced  the  wicked  with  his  knife,  threatening  to  tear 
out  their  hearts,  and  hence  he  was  called  the  Warrior. 
Subsequently  the  attempt  was  made  to  ascribe  this 
character  to  him  on  earth  also,  except  that  he  was  there 
to  be  regarded  rather  as  the  friend  of  the  good  than  the 
enemy  of  the  wicked,  and  as  such  he  was  represented 
bearing  a  shield  and  wielding  a  sword  ready  to  smite 
down  all  who  should  dare  to  withstand  those  who  were 
under  his  protection  and  wore  his  image  as  an  amulet. 

Taurt,  "the  great  one,"  is  generally  figured  as  a 
female  hippopotamus  standing  on  her  hind  legs,  with  a 
disproportionately  latge  belly  and  pendent  breasts,  her 
fore  feet  resting  on  the  amulet  which  represented  the  blood 
of  Isis.  Her  headdress  J  is  composed  of  the  solar  disk 
and  two  tall  feathers,  ^.  Occasionally  the  figure  is 
human  headed,  or  altogether  that  of  a  woman,  the 
head  being  surmounted  with  the  cow  horns  which  all 
Egyptian  goddesses  appear  to  have  been  at  times  en- 
titled to  wear.  Taurt  was  regarded  as  the  mother  and 
nurse  of  the  gods,  and  assisted  at  the  births  of  gods 
and  kings  alike.  She  had  a  counterpart  in  APET,  the 
hippopotamus    goddess     of    Thebes,    to    whom    a    small 


TAURT.  169 

temple  was  erected  there  in  Ptolemaic  times.  Here  Apet 
was  supposed  by  some  to  have  given  birth  to  Osiris,  while 
elsewhere  the  honour  was  claimed  for  the  temple  of 
Ombos.  Later  still  Taurt  was  known  simply  as  Rert, 
the  female  hippopotamus,  and  represented  as  dwelling  in 


FIG.    50.— TAURT   AND    HATHOR    COW    EMERGING    FROM    MOUNTAIN    OF    THE 

WEST.     (l.   d.   hi.   231,  b.) 
Rock  tomb  at  Anibeh,  Rameses  VI. 

the  "House  of  Suckling."  Earlier  than  this,  however, 
the  prevailing  syncretism  had  identified  her  with  Isis 
Hathor,  and  again  with  Bast  of  Bubastis,  Buto  of  Pelusium, 
the  Honess  headed  Menht  of  Heliopolis,  Renpt,  le.  the 


I/O  FOREIGN   DEITIES. 

year  personified,  of  Memphis,  and  other  goddesses.  Her 
image  in  glazed  earthenware  formed  a  favourite  amulet, 
which,  like  that  of  Bes,  was  held  to  be  a  great  prophylactic 
at  childbirth,  and  was  one  of  the  commonest  of  the  many 
Egyptian  amulets  which  passed  into  foreign  lands.  It 
also  passed  to  a  certain  extent  into  foreign  art,  and  there 
are  reminiscences  of  the  figure  of  Taurt  in  Mykenaean 
wall  scenes.^  In  the  cult  of  the  dead  the  functions  of 
Taurt  coincided  with  those  of  the  Hathor  Cow,  and  she 
was  supposed  to  be  the  guardian  of  the  Mountain  of  the 
West  through  which  the  road  to  the  realm  of  the  dead  lay. 
At  the  end  of  the  New  Kingdom  she,  as  well  as  Bes,  found 
her  way  back  to  Ethiopia,  where  it  would  seem  that  she 
had  originated  when  that  country  was  inhabited  by  negroes 
who  knew  nothing  of  Egyptian  culture.  In  Egypt  proper 
her  popularity,  like  that  of  Bes,  dates  from  the  New 
Empire,  and  it  greatly  increased  during  the  later  period  in 
the  history  of  Egyptian  religion,  when  there  was  a  decided 
preference  for  all  that  was  most  extraordinary  in  the  older 
texts,  special  significance  being  attached  to  it  both  in 
worship  and  in  belief. 

It  is  a  striking  fact  that  at  this  time,  when  the  tendency 
of  the  Egyptian  religion  to  combine  and  utilize  every 
religious  phenomenon  was  so  strong,  there  was  apparently 
no  inclination  whatever  to  be  influenced  by  the  religion  of 
the  Greeks.  The  language,  too,  which  had  shown  itself  to  be 
very  receptive  as  regards  Semitic  words,  was  closed  against 
both  Greek  and  Latin,  and  rarely  indeed  made  use  of  a 
term  borrowed  from  either  in  place  of  any  Egyptian  word. 
'  Cf.  Ephemeris  archaeologike,  1887,  pi.  10. 


NO   ADOPTION    OF   GREEK   DEITIES.  171 

In  the  same  way  the  Egyptian  religion  remained  apparently 
altogether  uninfluenced  by  the  faith  of  the  Macedonian 
rulers  of  the  land.  Only  very  isolated  indications  of  Greek 
ideas  can  be  found,  such,  e.^.,  as  the  substitution  of  the 
name  "  Hades  "  for  Duat  (the  Underworld)  in  the  texts.^ 
At  the  very  time  when  the  Hellenes  were  displaying  the 
greatest  zeal  in  appropriating  the  strange  gods,  simply 
accepting  some  of  them  and  proclaiming  others  as  counter- 
parts of  their  own  deities,  the  Egyptian  religion  had 
renounced  its  former  liberality  and  ceased  to  adopt  foreign 
deities. 

The  hatred  and  contempt  of  strangers  which  charac- 
terized the  Egyptian  of  the  decadence,  and  which  he  took 
pleasure  in  exhibiting  even  to  his  foreign  rulers,  were 
feelings  which  he  also  ascribed  to  his  gods.  They  too  had 
a  like  contempt  for  this  young  barbarian  people  from  the 
north  together  with  all  its  gods,  gods  which,  as  Plato 
would  express  it,  were  without  history,  and  therefore 
without  that  trustworthy  proof  of  their  reality  which  ancient 
traditions  afford. 

1  Brugsch  and  Dumichen,  Recueil,  iv.,  pi.  50,  no.  14. 


CHAPTER     VII. 

THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS.^ 

I  ^HE  worship  of  animals  has  always  been  regarded  as 
^  a  striking  phenomenon  of  the  Egyptian  religion  : 
Fathers  of  the  Church  considered  it  one  of  the  most 
frightful  aberrations  of  the  heathen  spirit;  Christian 
apologists  employed  it  as  an  illustration  of  the  senseless 
follies  of  heathen  worship  ;  while  Greek  philosophers,  on 
the  other  hand,  thought  to  see  in  it  profound  symbolic 
teaching.  Among  modern  critics  of  Ancient  Egypt  also, 
a  similar  divergence  of  opinion  prevails  on  this  point.  By 
some  the  Egyptian  worship  of  animals  has  been  adduced 
in  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  carefully  excogitated 
pantheism,  and  an  appreciative  sympathy  with  animal 
life ;  by  others  it  is  likened  to  the  fetishism  of  the  negro, 
and  advanced  as  evidence  of  the  low  plane  upon  which 
thought  and  feeling  anciently  moved  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Nile  ;  others  again  take  it  for  a  survival  of  the  prehistoric 
religion  of  the  people,  and  yet  others  as  the  outcome  of 
steady  degradation  in  religious  thought. 

•  Wiedemann,  Le  Culte  des  Animaux,  in  Le  Museofi,  viii.,  211, 
309  ei  seq.;  Herodot's  Zweites  Buck,  pp.  271  et  seq.;  Zu  detn 
Thierkulf  der  alteji  Aegypter,  in  Melanges  Charles  de  Harles, 
^^•iyzetseq. 

1  172 


ANIMAL   INCARNATIONS   OF   DEITY.  1 73 

Something  may  be  said  in  support  of  each  of  these  views, 
yet  none  is  free  from  error.  There  is  little  likelihood  now 
of  any  attempt  being  made  to  exalt  animal  worship  and 
view  it  as  a  particularly  noble  phase  of  spiritual  life  in 
Egypt,  but  in  this  chapter  w^e  shall  endeavour  to  show- 
how  the  Egyptians  came  to  adopt  this  form  of  worship 
by  a  logical  development  of  belief  in  accordance  with 
their  whole  habit  of  religious  thought.  In  dealing  with 
the  subject  a  clear  distinction  must  be  made  between 
two  different  points  of  view,  subsequently  associated  and 
blended  :  the  worship  of  individual  animals,  and  the 
setting  apart  of  certain  species  as  sacred. 
-'  The  idea  of  an  animal  incarnation  of  deity  is  thoroughly 
Egyptian.  The  Egyptian  imagined  the  next  world  to  be 
€ven  as  this,  the  life  of  the  blessed  dead  to  be  as  that  of 
the  living  upon  earth,  and  that  the  dead  also  ate  and 
drank,  hungered  and  thirsted,  rejoiced  and  suffered,  having 
in  one  thing  only  the  advantage  over  the  living  :  they  were 
no  longer  tied  to  a  single  form,  but  could  change  their 
shapes  into  those  of  animals,  or  plants,  or  even  of  gods. 
Nor  was  there  any  essential  distinction  between  gods  and 
men.  The  life  of  a  god  was  indeed  longer  than  that  of  a 
man,  but  death  put  an  end  to  the  one  as  to  the  other  ;  and 
the  power  of  a  god,  though  greater  than  that  of  a  man, 
was  none  the  less  limited.  In  every  sphere  of  thought 
man,  and  man  only,  was  to  the  Egyptians  the  measure 
of  all  things. 

Since  a  body  is  necessary  to  the  exercise  of  the  functions 
of  life,  the  soul  of  the  dead  could  not  be  imagined  as  an 
intangible  immaterial  being,  but  only  as  something  which 


174  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

lived  by  means  of  a  body.  A  god  also  was  in  like  case  ; 
and  in  order  to  associate  with  mankind  he  must  of 
necessity  become  incarnate,  otherwise  he  could  not  express 
himself  in  human  speech,  nor  act  with  visible  effect.  We 
learn  from  the  texts  how,  in  the  long  conversations  between 
god  and  king,  the  god  would  nod  or  extend  his  arms,  and 
how  the  goddess  would  act  as  midwife  at  the  birth  of  a 
prince  and  feed  from  her  own  breast  the  child  who  was 
born  to  rule  on  earth  as  representative  of  the  god  that 
had  begotten  him.  To  us  such  ideas  are  almost  necessarily 
allegorical  ;  not  so  to  the  Egyptian.  He  was  altogether 
lacking  in  any  faculty  for  comprehending  abstract  thought, 
and  could  only  apprehend  what  was  presented  as  a 
concrete  reality.  The  use  made  of  ideograms  in  the 
Egyptian  script  testifies  to  this  realistic  state  of  mind  : 
the  Egyptian  wished  not  only  to  gather  the  meaning  from 
the  characters,  but  to  see  it,  and  hence  drew  the  picture  of 
a  crocodile  after  its  written  name,  of  a  man  drinking  after 
the  word  "  drink,"  of  a  figure  in  the  act  of  striking  after 
the  word  "strike,"  and  so  on.  Even  for  ideas  which 
admitted  of  no  exact  representation  he  devised  ideograms, 
often  by  means  of  somewhat  complex  processes  of  thought  ; 
for  instance,  the  word  meaning  "  to  hunger  "  is  followed  by 
the  sign  of  a  man  with  his  finger  to  his  lips,  a  method  of 
suggestion  prompted  by  the  same  train  of  ideas  as  that 
which  leads  the  modern  Italian  beggar  to  point  to  his 
mouth  as  he  says,  "  Morio  di  fame ! "  Again,  the  word 
"  bad "  is  followed  by  the  image  of  a  small  bird,  birds 
being  the  commonest  agricultural  pest  in  the  country,  and 
the  word  "  pure  "  by  the  sign  for  water,  or  by  that  of  a  man 


DESIRE   FOR   INTIMACY   WITH    THE   GODS.  1 75 

over  whom  water  is  being  poured  ;  while  words  expressing 
purely  abstract  ideas,  such  as  "good,"  "beautiful,"  etc., 
were  determined  by  the  sign  of  a  papyrus  roll,  because 
as  written  words  they  had  a  visible  reality.  The  same 
impulse  moulded  the  language  as  well  as  the  script,  and 
Egyptian  sentences  are  so  constructed  and  arranged 
as  to  read  like  the  text  descriptive  of  a  series  of 
pictures. 

This  incapacity  for  abstract  thought  had  its  effect 
upon  the  Egyptian  religion  also.  The  Egyptian  was 
not  content  to  pray  trusting  that  his  prayer  might  be 
heard  by  an  unseen  power,  but  sought  rather  to  confide  it 
to  the  very  ears  of  his  god.  Led  by  instinctive  impulse  to 
picture  the  deity  to  himself  in  human  form,  he  thought  to 
have  found  this  incarnation  in  the  king,  who  was  entitled 
"  the  beautiful  god,"  "  the  great  god,"  "  the  Horus,"  and  to 
whom  in  this  capacity  petitions  were  addressed  which  he 
himself  fulfilled  or  else  transmitted  to  his  parental  deities, 
the  celestial  gods  whose  descendant  upon  earth  he  was, 
and  with  whom  he  held  constant  communication.  "  Thou, 
O  King  Merenptah !  art  as  the  image  of  thy  father  the 
Sun  who  riseth  in  heaven.  Thy  rays  reach  even  unto  the 
caverns.  There  is  no  place  where  thy  goodnesses  are  not. 
Thou  appointest  the  law  in  every  land.  As  thou  restest 
in  thy  palace  thou  hearest  the  words  of  all  lands.  Thou 
art  provided  with  millions  of  ears.  Thine  eye  is  brighter 
than  the  star  of  heaven  ;  it  knoweth  to  see  better  than  the 
sun  disk.  If  the  mouth  utter  aught  in  a  cavern,  never- 
theless it  Cometh  to  thine  ears.  Thine  eye  seeth  that 
which    was    done     in    secret,    merciful    lord,    creator    of 


176  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

breath ! "  ^  This  behef  in  the  divinity  of  the  king  was 
maintained  throughout  Egyptian  history  :  a  special  cult 
was  instituted  in  his  honour,  specially  appointed  priests 
officiated  in  connexion  with  it,  and  offerings  were  made  to 
him.  At  times  the  reverence  for  the  divine  person  of 
Pharaoh  was  so  excessive  that  even  the  kings  themselves 
worshipped  themselves,  some  attempt  being  made  to 
mitigate  the  inherent  absurdity  of  the  proceeding  by  the 
supposition  that  the  king's  prayers  were  not  addressed 
positively  to  himself,  but  to  his  ka"^ — the  ka  of  a  man 
being  one  of  the  immortal  constituents  of  his  being — 
and  no  incongruity  was  felt  in  the  idea  of  lengthy  con- 
versations between  the  king  and  his  own  ka^  in  which  the 
ka  graciously  granted  him  Joy,  Prosperity,  Health,  and 
Power  at  his  heart's  desire. 

But  though  looked  upon  as  a  god  the  king  was  by  no 
means  regarded  as  the  only  one :  other  members  of  the 
Pantheon  ranked  with  him  and  above  him.  Nor  was  he 
omnipresent.  /If  the  king  resided  in  Tanis,  then  Memphis 
would  be  without  visible  deity,  and  so  on  :  a  state  of  matters 
intolerable  to  the  Egyptian,  who  always  desired  the  pos- 
sibility of  daily  and  even  hourly  communion  with  his  gods,  / 
The  natural  resource  was  to  imagine  other  gods  as  dwelling 
on  earth  in  human  form  besides  the  god  incarnate  in  the 
king  ;  and  indeed  the  historic  titles  of  the  nomarchs  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  these  princes  also  had  been  regarded 
as  gods  in  prehistoric  times.     But  in  later  times  we  find 

'  Anastasz  Papyrus,  iv.,  p.  5,  11.  6  et  seq.  —  Anastasi  Papyrus, 
ii.,  p.  5, 11.  6  et  seq. 

■  For  a  definition  of  the  ka  see  below,  pp.  240-2. 


HUMAN    AND   ANIMAL   INCARNATIONS    OF   DEITY.       1 77 

only  isolated  instances  of  such  a  practice.  We  see,  for 
instance,  from  a  funerary  stela  that  a  high  official  early  in 
the  XlXth  Dynasty  was  entitled  "  the  god,"  and  worshipped 
as  such  by  one  of  his  subordinates  ;  and  at  a  later  date, 
according  to  some  of  the  earliest  Christian  writers,  it  was 
the  practice  in  Anabe— a  place  of  which  we  know  no 
other  mention — to  choose  out  a  man  for  worship  and 
to  make  offerings  to  him.^  But  for  the  rest,  and  apart 
from  the  recognized  divinity  of  the  king,  living  human 
incarnations  of  deity  were  in  historic  times  everywhere 
supplied  by  other,  and  particularly  animal,  incorporations. 

The  cause  of  this  change  may  doubtless  be  ascribed,  in 
the  first  place,  to  considerations  of  practical  expediency. 
If    other    men   than    the    kings   were   regarded   as    gods 
incarnate,  it  might  very  well  happen  that  the  differences  of 
opinion  which  would  inevitably  arise  among  them  would 
set  the  gods  at  variance  one  with  another,  and  thus  bring 
about    a   condition   of    affairs    highly   dangerous   to    the 
stability  of  the  state.     The  worship  of  animals  involved  no 
such  dangers.     On  the  one  hand,  through  their  sensibility 
and  power  of  action  they  were  able  to  express  their  desires 
by  movements,  and  also  to  eat  and  drink  ;  and  thus  they 
exposed  themselves  to  that  material  apprehension  of  which 
a  deity  must  have  been  capable  in  order  to  suit  the  Ancient 
Egyptian  mind.     And,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  easy  so  to 
manage   them   that  movements  apparently  made  at  their 
own  impulse  were  in  reality  the  response  to  given  signals 
by  means  of  which  the  priests,  or  even  the  king  himself, 
brought   about  the  supposed  expression  of  the  creatures' 
Wiedemann,  Proc.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  xiv.,  p.  335. 

12 


178  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

will.  For  in  the  strength  of  his  belief  in  his  own  divinity 
the  king  would  be  blind  to  the  absurdity  of  wilfully  im- 
posing upon  himself  by  extorting  from  the  god  consent  to 
his  own  wishes  and  the  answer  which  he  had  himself 
determined  upon.  The  Egyptian  was  certainly  not  so 
consciously  reverent  as  to  subordinate  his  wishes  to  the  will 
of  his  gods — nay  rather,  he  sought  to  force  his  own  views 
upon  them.  If  the  sacred  beasts  could  not  or  would  not 
help  in  emergency,  they  were  beaten  ;  and  if  this  measure 
failed  to  prove  efficacious,  then  the  creatures  were  punished 
by  death.  Similar  superstitious  practices  are  to  be  found 
among  the  lower  classes  of  widely  alien  races.  When 
Heaven  does  not  fulfil  the  desires  of  the  people,  the  offence 
is  visited  by  them  upon  idols,  or  statues  of  the  saints, 
according  to  nationality.  But  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile 
such  ideas  were  not  cherished  by  the  people  alone ;  it 
was  particularly  among  the  upper  classes  that  these  low 
conceptions  of  deity  prevailed,  and  it  was  the  priests 
themselves  who  condemned  and  executed  the  sacred 
animal.  Afterwards,  indeed,  they  sought  to  secure  its 
immortality  by  the  embalmment  of  the  body,  thereby 
hoping  to  appease  the  wrath  of  the  god,  lest  he  should 
avenge  the  killing  of  the  creature  in  which  he  had  been 
incarnate. 

In  fixing  upon  certain  animals  as  being  respectively  the 
incarnations  of  certain  deities,  the  Egyptian  was  guided 
by  what  he  considered  the  salient  characteristics  of  the 
different  divinities  and  of  the  different  species  of  animal  in 
question.  To  the  gods  of  nature  in  its  annual  rejuven- 
escence were  assigned  animals  supposed  to  be  possessed 


anijmals  representing  divine  attributes.     179 

of  exceptional    procreative   vigour,  such   as   the    bull  and 
ram  ;    while  animals  such   as   the  cow   were  dedicated  to 
the  fertile  and  food  producing  deities  ;  and  serpents  owed 
their   deification    to   their    stealthy   movements,   to    their 
deadly  power,  and  also  to  an  occasional  trustful  familiarity 
by  which  all  nations   have   been    impressed.      The   asso- 
ciation    of    the    hawk     with    sun     gods    was     obviously 
suggested    by   the   bird's   soaring   and    hovering   in    high 
heaven;   and   the   crocodile,   lying    inert   upon  the   ban^k, 
but  terrible  and  devouring  when  roused,  was  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  dignity  and  self  conscious  power  which  have 
always  appealed  to   the  reverence  of  Orientals.      A    list 
of  the  sacred  animals  of  Egypt  would  contain    not  only 
all   the  more   important   representations  of  the  Egyptian 
fauna— mammals,    fish,    reptiles,   and    insects,— but    many 
imaginary   creatures,  such   as    the    sphinx,   the  animal   of 
the   god    Set,  and    the   griffin.      To   the    Egyptian    these 
uerc  no    creatures    of  fancy,    but    real    inhabitants  of  the 
desert,  no  matter  how  rarely  they  might  be  seen  of  men. 
A    Xllth   Dynasty    representation    of    a    hunting    scene 
exhibits,  side    by  side   with   gazelles   and    other   animals, 
quadrupeds  with  heads  of  monsters,  with  heads  growing 
out     of    their     backs,     etc.— creatures    which     the     high 
official   in  whose    tomb    they  are  figured   believed  himself 
to   have   seen   during   his   lifetime,  although   it    might  be 
only   in    the    distance.^       They   are,    indeed,   scarcely   to 
be     classed     as     mere     creatures     of    imagination.       To 
primitive    man    all    things    which    his    fancy    paints    or 

■  Lepsius,  Denkmciler,   ii.    131;     Griffith  and  Newberry 
Bern  Hasaii,  i.,  pi.  xxx. 


l8o  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

a  dream  presents  to  him  arc  realities,  and  a  firm  faith 
in  the  existence  of  fabulous  monsters  has  always  been 
characteristic  of  races  dwelling  in  the  desert  ;  they  are 
convinced  that  these  things  have  been  seen  cither  by 
themselves  or  by  their  forefathers.  Alone  and  helpless  in 
the  darkness  of  night,  and  thus  left  a  prey  to  impressions, 
they  took  the  simplest  occurrences  for  the  most  terrible 
phenomena,  and  afterwards  felt  no  hesitation  in  announcing 
as  facts  the  illusions  of  their  fear. 

A  sacred  animal  was  "  the  renewed  life  "  of  the  god 
incorporate  in  it  :  that  is,  it  was  a  renewal  of  the  life  which 
had  perished  with  the  animal's  immediate  predecessor  in 
the  temple.  It  was  distinguished  from  others  of  its 
species  by  certain  marks  known  to  the  priests.  The  Apis 
is  said  to  have  had  twenty-nine  such  marks,  but  they  are 
differently  specified  by  different  writers.  According  to 
Herodotus  the  bull  was  "black,  with  a  square  spot  of 
white  upon  his  forehead,  and  on  his  back  the  figure  of 
an  eagle ;  the  hairs  on  his  tail  are  double,  and  there  is 
a  beetle  on  his  tongue."  But  there  is  some  uncertainty 
as  to  the  accuracy  of  these  data  :  we  find,  for  example,  in 
images  of  the  Apis  that  the  spot  upon  its  forehead  is 
triangular.  When  the  right  animal  had  been  found  and 
had  passed  through  a  certain  training  it  was  then  solemnly 
introduced  into  the  temple.  It  was  long  assumed,  and  still 
the  assumption  is  current,  that  the  Egyptian  temple  centred 
round  a  statue.  This  was  not  the  case.  The  numerous 
statues  set  up  in  a  temple  were  votive  images  dedicated 
either  by  kings  or  private  individuals  for  the  adornment 
of  the  building  and   the  future  welfare  of  the  bestower  ; 


THE   SACRED   ANIMAL   IN   THE   TEMPLE.  l8l 

the  processions  did  indeed  pass  before  them,  but  generally- 
speaking  it  was  not  to  them  that  the  temple  prayers  and 
offerings  were  made,  but  to  something  alive — in  short,  to 
the  sacred  animal  of  the  place.^ 

In  a  passage  quoted  by  Origen'-^  from  the  work  of  Celsus 
against  Christianity  we  read  :  "  If  a  stranger  reaches  Egypt 
he  is  struck  by  the  splendid  temples  and  sacred  groves  that 
he  sees,  great  and  magnificent  courts,  marvellous  temples 
with  pleasant  walks  about  them,  imposing  and  occult 
ceremonies  ;  but  when  he  has  entered  into  the  innermost 
sanctuary  he  finds  the  god  worshipped  in  these  buildings 
to  be  a  cat,  or  an  ape,  or  a  crocodile,  or  a  he  goat,  or  a 
dog."  With  this  statement  Clemens  of  Alexandria  and 
Lucian  alike  agree.  Their  testimony  on  this  point  is  often 
rejected  as  a  malicious  invention,  but  such  a  man  as  Celsus 
would  have  been  far  more  disposed  to  pass  over  in  silence 
whatever  might  detract  from  the  dignity  of  the  Egyptians 
than  to  invent  anything  to  their  ridicule.  His  mention  of 
such  a  thing  is  the  best  proof  that  it  was  a  reference  to  a 
known  fact,  to  an  institution  regarded  by  the  Egyptians 
as  a  matter  of  course. 

And  in  fact  how  could  an  Egyptian,  believing  that  he 

1  This  statement  of  course  applies  only  to  temples  in  which,  accord- 
ing to  Egyptian  views,  the  godhead  was  supposed  to  dwell,  and  not 
to  temples  elsewhere  dedicated  to  the  same  form  of  the  same  deity 
but  only  occasionally  visited  by  him,  and  which  must  have  contained 
an  image  of  the  god  which  should  represent  him  in  the  intervals  of 
his  visits.  Thus,  for  example,  in  Thebes  Amen  Ra  of  the  great 
temple  of  Karnak  as  incarnate  in  a  ram,  could  reside  in  his  own 
temple  only  ;  all  other  temples  there  dedicated  to  him  could  possess 
but  his  symbol,  and  this  would  generally  be  his  statue. 

^  iii.  17. 


1 82  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

possessed  his  god  himself  in  animal  form,  be  ashamed  to 
admit  the  possession  so  long  as  he  retained  any  conviction 
of  the  existence  and  power  of  his  gods  ;  and  of  these  he 
never  seriously  doubted.  However  divergent  the  views 
which  the  Egyptians  cherished  concerning  their  gods,  and 
however  variously  they  pictured  the  life  beyond  death  and 
the  relationship  to  deity  which  man  would  assume  in  it,  a 
genuinely  atheistic  attitude  of  mind  was  utterly  foreign  to 
the  Egyptian  race.  It  was  not  until  they  had  come  to 
know  something  of  higher  forms  of  religious  belief  that  the 
people  began  to  perceive  the  anomalous  nature  of  the 
worship  of  animals,  and  to  explain  it  as  the  mystic  cult  of 
mere  symbols  of  deity,  this  change  being  due  to  the  com- 
bined influences  of  Greek  philosophy  and  of  Christian 
teaching,  influences  which  even  Egyptian  heathendom 
could  not  altogether  evade.  But  in  so  far  as  the  Egyptian 
religion  remained  intact  the  divine  nature  of  certain 
animals  never  ceased  to  be  one  of  the  fundamental  dogmas 
of  its  doctrine. 

The  death  of  the.  sacred  animal  did  not  involve  the 
death  of  the  god  whom  it  represented,  nor  the  loss  of  its 
own  personal  identity.  Though  the  dislodged  deity  at 
once  sought  fresh  incarnation  in  another  animal  of  the 
same  species  and  appearance  as  that  which  had  died,  the 
soul  of  the  latter  was  immortal.  According  to  the  doctrine 
which  taught  that  the  dead  man  became  an  Osiris,  so  did 
the  dead  Apis  become  an  Osiris  Apis,  the  dead  ram  of  the 
temple  an  Osiris  ram,  etc.  In  all  these  cases  the  same 
rites  were  performed  for  the  animal  as  for  the  human 
mummy  :  it  was  embalmed  and  provided  with  amulets  for 


SACRED   ANIMAL   IMMORTAL;   RARELY   FIGURED.       183 

that  world  beyond  death  in  which  its  soul  would  henceforth 
live  for  ever.  The  increasing  number  of  the  Apis  bulls,  of 
the  divine  rams  and  crocodiles  which  he  was  thus  re- 
legating to  the  next  world,  suggested  no  embarrassments  to 
the  Egyptian,  although  he  believed  the  soul  of  each  sacred 
animal  to  be  of  unconditioned  divinity  ;  for  thus  too  the 
deceased  Pharaoh  was  supposed  to  remain  King  of  Upper 
and  Lower  Egypt  in  the  next  world,  notwithstanding  the 
presence  there  of  his  predecessors  on  the  throne,  who 
continued  to  hold  the  same  rank  and  were  rivals  therefore 
for  the  same  position.  The  Egyptians  did  not  attempt 
to  systematize  their  eschatological  beliefs,  and  on  such 
matters  the  illogical  and  absurd  presented  to  them  no 
occasions  of  stumbling  in  their  processes  of  thought. 

Considering  how  great  a  part  was  assigned  to  the  sacred 
animals  in  worship,  we  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  by  the 
comparative  rareness  with  which  they  are  represented  in 
the  wall  scenes  :  among  other  representations  of  deity  the 
images  of  animals  occur  scarcely  in  the  proportion  of  one 
in  a  thousand,  the  gods  being  shown  either  in  human  form 
or  as  having  human  bodies  and  animal  heads.  A  deity 
figured  in  human  form  generally  bore  the  features  of  the 
reigning  king  or  of  his  consort.  The  Egyptians,  who  laid 
special  emphasis  on  the  divine  power  of  voluntary  trans- 
formation, naturally  supposed  that  the  higher  being  would 
occasionally  assume  human  form  for  the  purpose  of  holding 
converse  with  the  king  on  equal  terms,  and  they  further 
represented  the  god  as  exactly  resembling  the  king  because 
the  latter  was  always  accounted  his  son.  But  the  com- 
posite   figures,    part   animal    and    part   human,    were   not 


1 84  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

intended  to  present  any  real  forms  of  the  divinity  :  they 
were  simply  used  as  ideographic  substitutes  for  the  divine 
image,  and  this  for  artistic  reasons.  It  was  a  strict  canon 
of  Egyptian  art  that  in  the  composition  of  a  scene  all  the 
figures  should  be  drawn  as  of  the  same  height ;  excepting 
only  that  a  deity  among  common  men,  a  Pharaoh  among 
his  subjects,  a  master  among  his  servants,  is  represented 
as  greatly  excelling  his  subordinates  in  stature,  this  being 
the  pictorial  expression  of  his  superiority  in  rank.  Since 
king  and  god  were  regarded  as  of  equal  rank,  both 
must  therefore  be  represented  as  of  the  same  stature,  and 
the  effect  would  have  been  absurd  had  the  god  been 
figured  altogether  in  the  likeness  of  his  sacred  animal. 
Imagine  the  composition  of  a  scene  in  which  a  crocodile 
stood  as  tall  as  the  king,  with  its  body  drawn  in  full 
proportion  !  Occasionally  the  expedient  was  adopted  of 
placing  the  sacred  animal  on  a  pedestal  and  thus  raising 
him  to  the  required  height ;  but  the  style  usually  preferred 
was  that  in  which  the  god  was  figured  in  human  form  and 
the  animal  signified  by  the  head  which  he  bore.  This 
method  of  representation  had  the  further  advantage  that 
the  composite  figure  could  be  shown  as  in  the  act  of 
moving  hands  and  feet,  of  embracing  the  king,  of  pre- 
senting him  with  the  sign  of  life  ;  or  if  a  goddess  were  in 
question  she  might  even  be  represented  as  suckling  the 
sovereign,  a  situation  which  would  at  once  strike  the 
spectator  as  strange  were  she  figured  simply  as  her  sacred 
animal.^ 

In  considering  some   of   the   ideas  connected  with   the 
'  Such  representations  are,  however,  occasionally  met  with  :  for 


ANIMALS    NOT   WORSHIPPED   AS   SPECIES.  1 85 

worship  of  sacred  animals  which  were  counted  as  gods, 
and  the  slaughter  of  which  by  a  layman  was  regarded  as 
deicide  and  punished  by  death,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  an 
animal  thus  honoured  was  always  a  single  individual  of  its 
kind  and  ditferentiated  from  the  rest  of  its  species  by 
certain  outward  marks.  But  the  respect  in  which  whole 
species  of  animals  were  held  in  the  different  nomes  is 
quite  another  thing.  In  these  cases  the  animals  were 
not  honoured  as  gods,  but  rather  as  specially  favoured  by 
the  gods  ;  because  it  was  believed  that  the  animal  form 
in  question  was  that  assumed  by  preference  during  his 
sojourn  upon  earth  by  the  deity  to  whom  it  was  sacred, 
and  protection  was  extended  to  the  whole  species  lest  any 
one  representative  might  happen  to  be  killed  at  a  moment 
in  which  it  was  serving  as  the  incarnation  of  the  god. 
In  some  places  also  uncertainty  as  to  the  marks  dis- 
tinguishing the  animal  which  was  the  incarnate  god  from 
the  rest  of  its  kind  induced  the  inhabitants  to  spare  the 
whole  species  in  order  to  obviate  any  risk  of  injury  to 
the  one  sacred  animal.  This  respect  for  whole  species 
of  animals  was  but  loosely  connected  with  the  prevalent 
religion  of  the  land,  and  even  down  to  the  present  day  we 
may  find  similar  instances  of  it  among  very  various  races  : 
in  many  parts  of  Germany,  for  example,  the  peasant 
thinks  it  a  serious  crime  to  hurt  a  stork.  Animals,  as 
species,  were  not  worshipped  in  Egypt,  but  they  were  in 

instance,  a  bas  relief  at  Florence,  No.  1225  (Petrie,  Photographs, 
No.  232),  represents  the  king  Horemheb  sucking  a  cow,  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  goddess  Hathor,  and  there  is  a  similar  scene  in  the 
Hathor  Shrine  at  Deir  el  Bahri. 


l86  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

certain  instances  tended  and  held  exempt  from  slaughter, 
and  sometimes  were  also  embalmed.  The  latter  attention 
was  bestowed  apparently  in  order  to  assure  to  the 
creatures  the  full  and  perfect  immortality  to  which 
mummification  was  essential ;  and  it  was  assumed  that  the 
god  who  favoured  the  particular  species  would  show  his 
gratitude  to  any  who  ensured  complete  immortality  to 
one  of  his  favourites.  Deceased  animals  so  treated  also 
became  Osiris  animals,  but  they  were  not  divinities  of  the 
next  world  like  the  Osiris  Apis  ;  they  took  no  higher  rank 
there  than  here,  even  as  the  Osiris  of  a  slave  remained  a 
slave,  and  the  Osiris  of  a  peasant  a  peasant. 

Different  species  were  protected  in  different  nomes,  and 
down  to  the  times  of  the  Roman  emperors  these  differences 
led  to  positive  wars  between  nome  and  nome,  the  popu- 
lace of  one  nome  refusing  to  tolerate  that  animals 
which  to  them  were  sacred  should  be  killed  and  eaten 
in  an  adjacent  district.  To  the  present  time  popular 
respect  for  certain  kinds  of  animals  has  lingered  on  in 
Egypt.  So  long  as  there  were  crocodiles  in  the  Valley 
of  the  Nile,  so  long  were  they  objects  of  reverence  to 
the  Egyptian  ;  and  cats,  which  his  forefathers  believed 
to  be  favourites  of  several  of  the  goddesses  whom  they 
worshipped,  are  regarded  by  him  to  this  day  with  peculiar 
affection.  In  the  case  of  the  cats,  the  attempt  to  explain 
away  this  heathen  survival  of  sentiment  and  practice  as 
Muhammedan,  by  alleging  Muhammed's  fondness  for  cats 
as  its  origin,  is  obviously  futile,  since  the  creatures  are  if 
anything  more  respected  by  Copts  than  by  Muhammedans. 

Among  the  sacred  animals  which  were  accorded  divine 


THE   APIS. 


187 


honours  as  individuals,  and  not  merely  respected  as  belong- 
ing to  certain  kinds,  four  are  of  exceptional  importance 
and  are  often  mentioned  both  by  Greek  writers  and 
in  the  inscriptions.  These  are  the  Apis  bull,  the  Sukhos 
crocodile,  the    Phoenix,  and  the  Sphinx.      The   first  and 


t^ 

HBI 

1  in^^^^^^^H^^Hi 

^^flK. 

KM^^^^^^^H 

^^^B^  " 

0 

^  ^^T^"^^ 

'-I^^____ 

,,.-s-.t    ...- 

FIG.    51. — APIS    BULL.       (BRONZE 


lUSEUM.) 


second  of  these  were  real  animals  actually  dwelling  in 
the  temples,  but  Phoenix  and  Sphinx  had  their  being  only 
in  the   imaginations  of  their  worshippers. 

Apis,  Egyptian  //c?//,  was  the  name  of  the  sacred  bull 
of  Memphis.  The  worship  of  the  Apis  is  as  old  as 
Egyptian  history,  and  was  still  practised  in  Roman  times : 


1 88  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

monuments  dating  from  the  time  of  the  IVth  Dynasty 
make  mention  of  its  priests,  and  we  read  of  the  dis- 
turbances which  attended  the  discovery  of  a  new  Apis  in 
the  reign  of  Hadrian,  and  that  a  solemn  induction  of  a 
sacred  bull  took  place  in  Memphis  even  under  Julian. 
The  Apis  was  supposed  to  have  been  begotten  by  a 
deity  descending  as  a  ray  of  moonlight  on  the  cow 
which  was  to  become  the  mother  of  the  sacred  beast  ; 
hence  he  was  regarded  as  the  son  of  the  god.  The 
bull  elect  was  known  by  his  marks,  and  when  the  old 
Apis  died  the  priests  sought  among  the  Egyptain  herds 
for  its  successor,  traversing  the  whole  land  in  their 
quest,  but  sometimes  without  much  result  for  a  year. 
When  at  length  they  succeeded  a  rich  guerdon  was 
bestowed  upon  the  owner  of  the  divine  bull,  great 
reverence  was  paid  to  the  cow  which  had  borne  him, 
and  a  temple  was  raised  in  her  honour.  The  discoverer 
of  the  new  Apis  also  received  large  sums  of  money, 
sometimes  amounting  to  as  much  as  one  hundred  talents 
of  gold.  The  animal  itself  was  led  to  Nilopolis  in  Lower 
Egypt,  and  here  its  training  was  so  far  accomplished  as 
to  admit  of  its  being  duly  brought  into  Memphis,  whither 
it  journeyed  at  moonrise  in  the  gilded  cabin  of  a  sacred 
bark,  henceforth  to  dwell  in  the  temple  of  Ptah.  Here, 
in  Strabo's  time,  visitors  who  were  not  satisfied  with 
gazing  at  the  animal  through  a  window  in  its  stall  might 
behold  it  bounding  in  the  magnificent  courtyard  which 
had  been   built  for  it  by  King   Psammetichus. 

Great  honours  were  paid  to  the  Apis  :  the  Pharaohs  ex- 
pended  their  riches   lavishly  on   its  cult,  and   Alexander 


THE   APIS.  189 

the  Great  and  even  Titus  deemed  it  necessary  to  present  it 
with  offerings.  But  chiefly  it  was  renowned  for  its  oracles, 
which  were  imparted  in  very  various  ways.  When  the  bull 
licked  the  garments  of  the  celebrated  Eudoxus  of  Cnidus 
this  signified  the  astronomxcr's  approaching  death ;  a  like 
fate  was  predicted  to  Germanicus  when  it  refused  to  eat 
at  his  hand  ;  and  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  Augustus  was 
announced  beforehand  by  its  bellowing.  Some  inquiries 
were  answered  by  the  animal's  passing  into  one  or  other 
of  the  two  rooms  placed  at  its  disposition,  and  others  by 
dreams  which  were  vouchsafed  to  inquirers  who  slept  in 
the  temple  and  which  were  explained  by  the  sacred  inter- 
preters. Other  inquiries,  again,  though  presented  to  the 
creature  itself,  found  their  reply  through  the  voices  of 
children  playing  before  the  temple,  whose  words  assumed 
to  the  believing  inquirer  the  form  of  a  rhythmic  answer 
to  his  question.  Prophecies  of  a  general  kind  took  place 
during  the  procession  of  the  Apis.  "  Then  the  youths 
who  accompanied  him  sang  hymns  in  his  honour,  while 
the  Apis  appeared  to  understand  all  and  to  desire  that 
he  should  be  worshipped.  Suddenly  the  spirit  took  pos- 
session of  the  youths  and  they  prophesied."  ^ 

Thus  honoured,  the  Apis  lived  on  in  the  temple  until 
it  died  a  natural  death.  This  event  was  the  occasion  for 
a  national  mourning,  and  the  body  of  the  bull  was 
solemnly  embalmed  and  carried  to  its  last  resting  place. 
The  tombs  of  the  sacred  bulls  of  Memphis,  at  least  from  the 
middle  of  the  XVIIIth  Dynasty,  that  is  from  about  1500 
B.C.  onward,  were  discovered  by  Mariette  in  1851.  The 
1  Plinv,  Hist.  Nat.,  viii.  185. 


190' 


THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 


gigantic  and  generally  monolithic  sarcophagi,  weighing  on 
an  average  fifty-eight  tons  each,  stand  singly  in  separate 


i_ 


FIG.    52. — APIS    STELA.       (iN    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 

rooms,  which  in  some  cases  lie  apart  beneath  small  chapels, 
but  in  others  are  connected  by  an  extended  system  of 
passages.  ^  Mariette  found  that  some  of  the  sarcophagi 
still  contained  the  mummies  of  the  bulls,  and  one  of  the 


SERAPIS— SUKHOS  19I 

(  tombs  which  he  opened  had  been  left  absolutely  undis- 
turbed from  the  time  that  it  had  been  closed  after  the 
interment  of  the  Apis  :  the  footprints  of  the  last  Egyptian 
who  had  left  the  chamber  some  three  thousand  years 
ago  were  still  visible.  ^>Vithin  and  without  the  chapels 
were  many  votive  stelae  and  statues,  dedicated  by  pilgrims 
who  had  journeyed  to  the  spot  once  more  to  do  reverence 
to  the  Apis  who  had  recently  departed,  in  hopes  of  thereby 
gaining  his  favour  and  the  fulfilment  of  their  various 
washes.  The  soul  of  the  Apis  was  supposed  to  have  been 
received  into  heaven  as  the  Osiris  Apis,  and  was  regarded 
henceforth  almost  as  a  Double  of  Osiris.  It  was  indeed 
in  this  form  that  Osiris  was  generally  recognized  by  the 
Greeks,  who,  having  endowed  him  with  attributes  derived 
from  Pluto  and  Asklepios,  named  this  half  Greek,  half 
Egyptian  deity  Sarapis  or  Serapis.  Under  the  Romans 
the  worship  of  Serapis  extended  throughout  the  empire, 
having  its  devotees  in  every  province  ;  wherever  Roman 
legions  penetrated  inscriptions  making  mention  of  his 
name  have  almost  invariably  been  found,  and  he  rather 
than  Osiris  himself  was  regarded  as  the  consort  of  Isis. 
And  since  Egyptian  symbols  and  amulets  were  considered 
necessary  to  a  proper  observance  of  this  cult,  both  in 
temple  and  in  home,  genuine  Egyptian  antiquities  of  all 
sorts  and  sizes,  from  tallest  obelisk  to  tiniest  amulet,  are 
found  in  abundance  in  all  countries  which  once  formed 
part  of  the  Roman  Empire. 

SUKHOS,  the  crocodile,  was  the  incarnation  of  the  god 
Scbdk,^  and  dwelt  in   a  lake  near   Krokodilopolis,  in  the 
'  See  above,  pp.  143-5. 


192  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

Fayum.  To  its  priests  the  creature  was  tame,  and  Strabo,^ 
who  was  in  Egypt  during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Augustus,  gives  the  following  account  of  his  own  visit  to 
the  crocodile  god  :  "  Our  host,  a  highly  respected  man 
who  showed  us  the  sacred  things  at  Krokodilopolis,  went 
with  us  to  the  lake,  taking  with  him  from  the  table  a  small 
cake  of  bread,  roasted  meat,  and  a  flask  of  honey  wine. 
We  found  the  animal  lying  on  the  bank.  The  priests 
approached  it,  and  while  some  opened  its  jaws  another  put 
into   its   mouth    first   the   cake,  and    then    the    meat,  and 


FIG.    53. SEBAK    (SUKHOS),    THE    CROCODILE    GOD    OF    THE    FAYUM. 

(PLEYTE,    "papyrus    OF    LAKE    MOERIS,"    PL.    II.) 

Late  Ptolemaic. 

afterwards  poured  in  the  honey  wine.  Then  the  animal 
plunged  into  the  lake  and  swam  to  the  opposite  bank. 
Meanwhile  there  came  another  visitor  bringing  a  like 
offering  ;  this  the  priests  received  and  went  round  to  the 
other  side  of  the  lake.  When  they  had  found  the  animal 
they  gave  it  the  fresh  offering  after  the  same  manner  as 
before."  As  with  the  worship  of  Apis,  so  also  with  that  of 
Sukhos :  it  lasted  far  into  Roman  times,  the  god  being 
then  known  by  the  name  of  PetesHkhos,  "  the  gift  of  its 
Sukhos "  ;  he  is  even  mentioned  in  Fayum  papyri  of  the 


THE   PHOENIX.  1 93 

third  century  A.D,  Sukhos  also  had  his  oracle  :  when  on 
one  occasion  he  would  neither  listen  to  King  Ptolemacus 
nor  give  heed  to  his  own  priests,  this  signified  the  ap- 
proaching demise  of  the  sovereign.  After  death  the  body 
of  the  sacred  reptile  was  carefully  embalmed  and  laid  away 
in  one  of  the  subterranean  chambers  of  the  Labyrinth,  and 
so  sacred  was  the  place  of  interment  that  Herodotus  was 
not  allowed  to  visit  it. 

The    Phoenix,^    Egyptian    bennil,    which    classic    and 
Christian     artists    often    represented    as    an     eagle,    was 
imagined   by  the  Egyptians  rather   as  a   heron,  and  was 
depicted  with  two  long  feathers 
growing  out  at  the  back  of  its  y?C~z\^ 

head,  and  sometimes  also  with        ^lL    C 
a  tuft  hanging  from  its  breast, 
^^.    The  name  ^^«;?/2  signifies 
"  that  which  revolves  "  or  "  turns 

back."    Myths  told  how  the  bird  - 

was    born    from    the    midst    of  ^'^-  54- 

a  t.-    u  r  ^  "T"^  BENNU  (phoenix). 

flames    which    arose    from    out  ,  „         „        „\ 

(leps.,  "todt."  ch.  83.) 

of     the     summit      of     a      tree      in  Ptolemak  Papyrus. 

Heliopolis,  and  that  it  was  known  to  men  by  the  beauty 
of  its  song,  to  which  even  the  Sun  himself  loved  to  listen. 
The  Phoenix  symbolized  the  morning  sun  arising  out  of 
that  fiery  glow  of  dawn  which  dies  away  as  the  new  born 
luminary  ascends  the  sky,  and  hence  was  regarded  as 
the  bird  of  Ra.  But  since  the  dead  Sun  was  held  to 
become  an  Osiris  and  the  new  Sun  to  arise  from  the 
embalmed  body  of  the  old  which  had  been  duly  brought  to 
1  Wiedemann,  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1878,  pp.  89  et  seq. 

13 


194  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

Heliopolis,  in  like  manner  also  the  Phoenix  was  supposed 
to  be  a  form  of  Osiris  in  which  the  god  returned  to  his 
own  country.  Further,  as  on  the  death  of  the  Sun  it  was 
from  the  Osiris  Sun  that  the  Phoenix  Sun  arose,  so  it  was 
taught  in  the  case  of  humanity  also  that  it  was  from  his 
own  Osiris  that  there  sprang  the  new  man  of  the  resurrec- 
tion, and  of  this  resurrection  the  Phoenix  became  a  symbol 
from  a  very  early  date.  Hence,  even  in  funerary  texts 
of  the  Old  Kingdom  the  deceased  was  likened  to  the 
Phoenix  :  later  it  continued  to  serve  as  a  symbol  of  the 
resurrection,  and  as  such  it  is  mentioned  in  patristic 
literature  and  figures  in  earliest  Christian  art. 

The  Sphinx  of  the  Egyptian  had  little  in  common  with 
the  Sphinx  of  the  Greeks,  beyond  the  name  given  to  it  by 
the  latter  people.  When  the  Greeks  first  came  into  the 
Valley  of  the  Nile  and  there  saw  figures  of  human  headed 
quadrupeds,  they  remembered  that  at  home  also  there  was 
the  tradition  of  such  a  creature,  and  that  it  was  named 
"  sphinx."  This  name  they  bestowed,  therefore,  not  un- 
naturally, upon  the  creature  of  Egyptian  myth,  undisturbed 
by  the  fact  that  there  was  no  real  similarity  between  the 
two  conceptions.  The  Egyptian  sphinx  plays  the  part  of 
guardian  of  a  temple  or  deity,  and  hence  the  god  Aker, 
the  watchman  of  the  Underworld  and  the  guardian  of  the 
god  Ra  during  the  hours  of  the  night,  is  generally  shown 
as  a  Sphinx  with  the  body  of  a  lion  when  represented  as 
going  forth  to  destroy  the  enemies  of  the  Sun  god.  As  the 
image  of  the  Winged  Solar  Disk  over  the  door  of  a  temple 
by  its  mere  presence  prevented  any  evil  thing  from  entering 
within  the  sacred  halls,  so  the  couchant  sphinxes  guarding 


FIG.    55.— GREAT   SPHINX    OF   GI2EH. 
As  excavated  by  Brugsch  Bey  in  1886-7. 


THE   GREAT   SPHINX.  I97 

the  approach  served  to  keep  back  any  enemy  of  the  god 
of  the  place  from  the  gates  of  the  divine  abode.  In  tombs 
also,  especially  those  of  later  date,  sphinxes  were  placed 
in  the  capacity  of  guardians.  In  one  such  instance  the 
sphinx  is  made  to  address  the  deceased  as  follows  :  "  I 
protect  the  chapel  of  thy  tomb,  I  guard  thy  sepulchral 
chamber,  I  ward  off  the  intruding  stranger,  I  cast  down 
the  foes  to  the  ground  and  their  arms  with  them,  I  drive 
away  the  wicked  one  from  the  chapel  of  thy  tomb,  I 
destroy  thine  adversaries  in  their  lurking  place,  blocking 
it  that  they  no  more  come  forth."  ^ 

Primarily  the  sphinx  represented  an  imaginary  quadruped 
living  in  the  desert,human  headed,  and  supposed  to  be  the 
favourite  incarnation  assumed  by  Ra  the  Sun  god  when 
he  desired  to  protect  his  friends  and  adherents.  This  is 
the  conception  embodied  in  the  gigantic  Sphinx  near  the 
pyramids  of  Gizeh,  hewn  out  of  the  living  rock  and  standing 
seventy-five  feet  above  the  plain  of  the  desert.  Sculptured 
in  remote  antiquity,  here  it  couched  even  in  the  time  of 
Khephren,  builder  of  the  second  pyramid,  guarding  the 
necropolis  against  the  approach  of  evil  genii.  It  faced  the 
east  and  the  rising  sun,  being  itself  one  of  the  manifesta- 
tions of  the  Sun  god,  and  more  especially  dedicated  to  the 
Sun  of  the  morning,  banisher  of  the  mists  of  the  night. 
Hence  it  bears  the  name  of  Khepera  as  well  as  Ra 
Harmakhis.  Between  the  fore  feet  was  a  small  temple 
approached  by  a  flight  of  steps  and  containing  stelae  and 
inscriptions  relating  to  the  worship  of  the  Sphinx  ;  but  the 
temple  was  by  no  means  always  accessible,  for  in  ancient 
'  Bergmann,  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1880,  p.  50. 


198  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

times  as  now  it  was  repeatedly  buried  by  the  whirling 
sands  of  the  surrounding  desert.  An  extant  stela  ^  tells 
us  how  one  day  when  Thothmosis  IV.  was  out  hunting  and 
took  his  siesta  in  the  shadow  of  the  great  Sphinx,  the  god 
Ra  Harmakhis  himself  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream, 
ordering  him  to  clear  away  the  sand  from  the  divine 
image.  But  the  work  of  the  king  was  of  no  lasting  avail ; 
the  sands  soon  drifted  back  again,  covering  the  stela 
erected  to  commemorate  the  royal  excavation.  Later  the 
Sphinx  would  seem  to  have  been  cleared  by  Rameses  II., 
for  his  name  frequently  recurs  in  the  inscriptions  of 
its  temple  ;  but  again  the  sands  swept  back.  No 
mention  of  the  great  image  is  to  be  found  in  Herodotus, 
although  reference  is  made  to  it  by  later  Greek  writers. 
More  than  once  in  the  present  century  the  sand  has 
been  cleared  away,  only  to  return  as  of  old.  Nothing 
is  now  to  be  seen  but  the  face,  gazing  out  over  the 
desert,  still  majestic,  though  sorely  mutilated  by  the 
Arabs.  To  them  the  Sphinx  is  known  as  the  "  Father 
of  Terror,"  as  if  in  recollection  of  its  ancient  signifi- 
cance. And  so  obviously  does  the  figure  produce  the 
impression  which  it  was  intended  to  convey  that,  long 
before  its  exact  office  was  made  known  to  us  by  the 
decipherment  of  the  hieroglyphics,  the  great  Sphinx  of 
Gizeh  was  described  by  travellers  as  the  guardian  of 
the  necropolis   near  the  pyramids. 

Few   indications  of  the   existence   of  sphinxes    in    the 
Old  Kingdom  remain  ;  the  predilection  for  them  prevailed 

'  Lepsius,  Denk.,   iii.  68,   translated  by   Brugsch,  Aeg.  Zeit., 
1876,  pp.  89  et  seq. 


SPHINXES.  199 

chiefly  from  the  time  of  the  Xllth  Dynasty  to  that  of 
the  Ptolemies.  The  face  of  this  manifestation  of  the 
deity  was  generally  modelled  after  that  of  the  reigning 
sovereign,  for  similar  reasons  to  those  which  led  the 
Egyptians  to  represent  their  gods  in  the  likeness  of  their 
Pharaohs  (p.  183);  and  since  the  sovereign  was  usually  a 
king,  as  a  rule  the  sphinxes  were  male  sphinxes,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Amasis  sphinxes  at  Sais  mentioned  by 
Herodotus.  But  the  sphinxes  of  a  temple  founded  by 
a  queen  might  well  be  female  sphinxes,  more  especially 
if  they  were  also  intended  to  serve  as  representations  of  a 
goddess.  For  a  sphinx  was  not  regarded  as  belonging 
exclusively  to  Ra  :  its  form  was  not  only  adopted  by 
the  god  Aker  in  his  capacity  of  guardian  to  the  Sun  god, 
but  also  by  various  other  tutelary  deities,  as,  for  example, 
occasionally  by  Isis  when  she  appears  as  the  guardian 
of  her  spouse  Osiris. 

This  fact  further  explains  how  it  came  to  pass  that  a 
sphinx  was  sometimes  sculptured  with  other  than  a 
human  head — for  example,  the  head  of  a  hawk  or  of 
a  jackal — the  animal  head  substituted  being  that  ascribed 
to  the  sacred  animal  of  the  deity  who  was  supposed 
to  have  chosen  the  sphinx  for  his  incorporation.  But 
the  stone  rams,  lions,  etc.,  which  we  find  as  amulets, 
or  which  in  many  instances  occupy  the  same  position 
before  Egyptian  temples  as  the  sphinxes,  must  by  no 
means  be  confounded  with  the  sphinxes  :  each  was 
simply  an  image  of  the  sacred  animal  of  the  god  of  the 
place,  of  the  creature  in  which  he  took  incarnate  form, 
and  each  was  therefore  the  equivalent  of  the  statue  of  the 


200  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

god.  There  is  no  authority  whatever  for  calling  these 
objects  by  the  name  of  sphinxes,  and  the  mistaken 
nomenclature  has  arisen  only  from  the  fact  that  their 
office  was  the  same,  architecturally  speaking. 

The  Egyptian  temple  was  built  with  a  double  end  in 
view.  It  was,  in  the  first  place,  the  abode  of  the  god, 
or  rather  of  his  sacred  animal,  and  provided  accommoda- 
tion for  the  assembling  together  of  his  worshippers  with 
prayer  or  offerings.  In  the  second  place,  from  prehistoric 
times  it  was  the  fortress  from  which  god  and  worshippers 
might  defend  themselves  against  the  common  foe  in  the 
days  when  nome  strove  against  nome  for  the  supremacy, 
and  no  Pharaoh  had  as  yet  appeared  to  compose  their 
differences  and  prevent  the  opposition  of  individual 
interests  and  party  passions  from  issuing  in  violent 
outbreaks.  Then,  as  now,  where  savage  races  are  con- 
cerned, the  conquest  of  a  country  or  district  involved  the 
destruction  of  the  local  deity  and  the  slaughter  of  his 
sacred  animal,  and  Kambyses  and  Okhus  did  no  more 
than  follow  the  example  of  the  early  Egyptians  themselves 
when  the  one  attempted  to  kill  the  Apis  and  the  other 
commanded  the  slaughter  of  the  sacred  bull  and  of  the 
ram  of  Mendes.  It  was  to  guard  against  such  con- 
tingencies that  the  abode  of  the  god  was  made  the  fortress 
of  his  domain,  the  citadel  into  which  his  followers  flocked 
together  for  their  final  stand  against  the  foe.  But  the 
defensive  character  of  such  buildings  was  maintained  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Nile  even  after  the  consolidation  of  the 
empire  and  the  gradual  formation  of  a  national  pantheon 
which    included     all    local    divinities    had     abolished    or 


THE   EGYPTIAN   TEMPLE. 


201 


minimized  this  threatened  danger  to  the  temples  of  the 
gods.  From  earliest  to  latest  times  the  ground  plan  of 
the  Egyptian  temple  remained  practically  unchanged  in 
its  essential  parts. 

The  chief  room  of  the  temple 
was  the  sanctuary,  and  within 
this  was  the  naos,  a  rectangular 
box  opening  in  front,  often  with 
a  door  of  lattice  work,  and 
serving  in  some  cases  as  the 
cage  of  the  sacred  animal,  and 
in  others  for  whatever  object 
was  supposed  to  be  the  incor- 
poration of  the  god.  But  in 
those  exceptional  temples  where 
several  deities  were  alike 
honoured  there  might  be  several 
sanctuaries  side  by  side  instead 
of  one  only.  The  sanctuary  was 
more  or  less  surrounded  by 
chambers,  generally  dark,  and 
which  served  as  storerooms  for 
the  temple  furniture,  sacred 
garments,  processional  barks, 
standards,  and  the  like.  In 
front  of  the  sanctuary  and  its 
surroundings  lay  the  hypostyle 
court,  lighted  dimly  by  windows 

near  the  roof  and  opening  to  the  sanctuary  by  a  narrow 
and    somewhat     low     doorway.       Opposite    to    this,    on 


FIG.  56. — PLAN  OF  SMALL  TEMPLE 
OF  RAMESES  II.  TO  AMEN,  AT 
KARNAK.  (WIEDEMANN,  "  GESCH. 
ALT.    AEG.,"    P.    287.) 

A.  Entrance  Pylon. 

B.  Hypaethral  Court. 

C.  Hypostyle  Hall. 

D.  Sanctuar3'. 

E  &  F.  Store  Chambers. 


202  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

the  Other  side  of  the  hypostyle  hall,  another  and  hardly 
larger  doorway  led  into  a  second  court,  open  to  the  sky. 
This  court  was  as  a  rule  colonnaded  only  on  either  side, 
but  occasionally  also  a  series  of  columns  traversed  the 
centre,  as  is  the  case  in  the  temple  of  Karnak.  It  was 
entered  from  without  through  a  colossal  gateway  mainly 
consisting  of  two  great  and  wide  towers,  each  tower  having 
its  four  sides  sloping  regularly  and  slightly  inward.  The 
passage  between  the  towers  was  but  narrow  and  could 
easily  be  defended  from  their  parapets.  Such  gateways 
are  now  known  to  us  as  pylons,  and  the  entrance  from 
the  hypaethral  to  the  hypostyle  court  was  also,  generally 
speaking,  through  a  pylon.  The  passage  of  the  great 
pylon  was  often  fitted  with  wooden  doors  plated  with 
precious  metal  and  glittering  in  the  sun.  In  addition  to 
the  chief  entrance  there  were  only  small  side  posterns  by 
which  admission  to  the  temple  could  be  gained  ;  and  these 
could  easily  be  barred  against  a  foe,  and  from  them,  if 
need  were,  sorties  could  be  made. 

Generally  an  obelisk  was  erected  before  each  tower  of 
the  pylon  ;  between  either  tower  and  its  obelisk  was 
placed  a  seated  statue  of  the  royal  founder,  and  in  front 
of  the  pylon  were  four  or  eight  tall  masts  from  which  gaily 
coloured  streamers  waved,^  and  which  were  intended  to 
serve  in  some  mystic  way  to  ward  off  evil  from  the  temple, 
as  was  also  an  image  of  the  Winged  Sun  Disk  over  the 
doorway.  The  inner  walls  of  the  temple  from  pylon  to 
sanctuary  were  adorned  with  scenes  arranged,  as  it  would 

1  Lepsius,  Denkm.,  iii.  243  (temple  of  Khunsu  at  Karnak) ; 
Mariette,  Man.  Div.,  pi.  30a  (temple  of  Ptah  at  Memphis). 


SCENES   ON    THE   WALLS   OF   TEMPLES.  203 

seem,  in  a  certain  prescribed  order.  The  whole  series 
formed  a  kind  of  guide  book  for  the  use  of  the  king 
on  his  visits  to  the  temple,  representing  as  they  did  the 
course  of  the  various  ceremonies  which  it  was  incumbent 
on  him  to  perform  on  such  occasions.  The  series 
commences  at  the  outer  pylon  and  extends  to  the  inner- 
most chamber,  the  right  and  left  walls  always  corresponding 
in  subject.  Almost  invariably  the  god  of  the  place  is 
represented  as  facing  towards  the  entrance  and  the 
king  as  advancing  into  the  building  to  meet  him.  The 
ceremonial  order  of  the  scenes  was  but  rarely  interrupted 
by  historical  texts,  scenes  of  battle,  or  the  like,  these  being 
more  usually  sculptured  upon  the  outer  walls  of  the  temple. 
Yet  they  also  were  considered  as  being  essentially  temple 
texts  and  scenes,  for  to  the  Egyptian  every  war  in  which 
his  country  engaged  was  a  holy  war,  counselled  and  planned 
by  the  great  god  himself,  even  in  such  details  as  a  command 
that  the  king  should  not  go  out  to  fight  in  person — a  com- 
mand, by  the  bye,  which,  when  inculcated  on  Merenptah, 
was  very  favourably  received  by  that  king,  who  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  remarkable  for  his  personal  valour. 
But  if  the  king  himself  went  forth  to  battle  with  his 
host,  then  the  god  hovered  over  him  as  a  bird,  protecting 
him,  granting  victory  to  his  arms,  and  even  assuming 
human  form  to  fight  at  Pharaoh's  side  in  his  hour  of  peril. 
Since  the  god  had  conducted  the  war,  it  was  to  him  that 
the  victorious  king  made  offering  of  all  the  best  of  the 
spoil — gold,  slaves,  and  the  revenues  of  cities — while  inscrip- 
tions celebrating  the  main  incidents  of  the  war,  and  more 
especially  the  victory,  were  duly  placed  within  his  house. 


204  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

For  were  not  these  in  truth  the  deeds  of  the  god,  and  the 
king  the  divine  son  who  had  acted  throughout  the  war 
only  as  the  instrument  and  in  the  interests  of  the  god? 
The  front  walls  of  the  pylon  were  almost  invariably 
sculptured  with  a  scene  of  victory.  We  see  the  king 
as  he  slays  before  his  god  a  group  of  imploring  prisoners, 
and  this  not  only  represented  an  actual  occurrence — the 
human  sacrifice  celebrated  by  the  Pharaoh  before  his  god 
after  a  victorious  return  from  war  ^ — but  also  served  as  a 
terrible  example  to  the  enemies  of  that  god,  who  might 
see  depicted  here  the  fate  of  all  those  who  attempted  to 
oppose  the  divine  power. 

A  wall,  or  more  commonly  an  earthwork,  surrounded 
the  temple  temenos,  and  occasionally  included  other 
temples,  groves  of  trees  in  which  birds  made  their  nests, 
lakes  upon  which  the  temple  barks  floated,  dwellings  also 
for  the  priests,  and  sometimes  even  palaces,  as  it  would 
seem.  The  only  access  to  the  temenos  was  through  gates 
in  the  enclosure  wall  directly  opposite  to  the  pylons. 
Sacred  ways  led  up  to  them,  and  along  these  funerals  passed, 
images  of  the  gods  were  borne  in  procession,  and  the  king 
came  to  make  offerings  in  the  temple.  These  ways  were 
connected  with  the  Nile  by  flights  of  steps,  at  the  foot 
of  which  the  barks  for  the  service  of  the  temple  and  of 
the  dead  were  anchored  ;  they  were  often  flanked  on  either 
side  by  a  row  of  sphinxes  placed  at  regular  intervals  and 
confronting  each  other  across  the  road,  or  more  generally 
by  images  of  the  sacred  animal  of  the  temple  inscribed 
in  honour  of  the  royal  founder  and  occasionally  holding 
'  Cf.  Wiedemann,  Le  Museoti,  xiii.,  p.  455. 


POPULAR   NATURE   OF   EGYPTIAN    RELIGION.        205 

his  Statue  between  the  outstretched  paws.  These  stone 
figures  of  the  sacred  animals  were  numbered  by  thousands  ; 
at  Thebes,  for  example,  there  were  whole  avenues  of  rams. 
They  guarded  the  Via  Sacra  and  marked  the  boundaries 
of  the  sacred  domain.  Even  in  processions  the  god 
had  no  need  to  leave  his  own  property,  for  sacred  ways 
passed  from  temple  to  temple,  through  cities  and  fields, 
and  also  to  the  place  of  embalmment  and  to  the  tombs  ; 
for  the  dead  who  were  carried  thither  had  themselves 
become  as  gods  and  were  protected  as  far  as  possible 
from  passing  along  unconsecrated  ground. 

The  barriers  presented  by  the  rows  of  sphinxes  or  sacred 
animals  and  by  the  enclosure  wall  of  the  temple  were  the 
only  ones  which  separated  god  from   man  in   the  Valley 
of  the  Nile.     He  who  had  a  pure  heart  and  was  a  faithful 
follower  of  the  gods  might  walk  the  sacred  way  at  festivals 
and  enter  the  temple  in  the  train  of  the  procession  ;  he 
might   listen    to   the   chant  of  the  priests  and  reverently 
gaze  into   the   mysterious   and    lamp  lit  darkness   of  the 
Holy  of  Holies,  wherein   the   god   himself  moved  in   his 
animal    form.     No  division  of  the  people  into  Esoterics, 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  hidden  mysteries  of  the  religion, 
and  Exoterics,  who  assisted  at  the  sacred  rites  only  from 
without  but  might  not  enter  into  the  temple,  or  at  any 
rate  into  the  sanctuary,  is  mentioned  in   Egyptian  texts, 
whatever  theories  may  have  been  advanced  on  the  subject 
by  modern  scholars.     Of  course  the  Egyptians  would  no 
more   have   allowed    than    we  ourselves   should   that  any 
manner  of  man  might  enter  a  temple  at  his  pleasure  and 
pass  without  restrictions  into  the  Holy  of  Holies.     To  this 


206  THE   WORSHIP   OF   ANIMALS. 

end  a  certain  preparation  was  exacted,  chiefly  consisting  in 
prayers,  fasting,  and  ablutions ;  but  no  one  was  of  necessity 
excluded  from  the  mysteries  of  the  Egyptian  religion  : 
these  were  as  accessible  to  the  people  as  to  the  nobility, 
however  true  it  may  be  that  the  former  troubled  themselves 
but  little  on  the  subject,  and  left  it  to  the  priests  to  take 
thought  for  the  offerings.  The  people  would  naturally 
have  more  faith  in  the  power  of  amulets  and  magic  than 
had  the  cultured  classes,  yet  fundamentally  the  religious 
belief  of  all  classes  was  the  same.  The  rites  of  their 
religion  presented  mysteries  only  to  the  ignorant,  or  to 
such  as  were  careless  of  inquiring  into  their  meaning ; 
but  necessarily  the  subject  must  always  have  been  both 
difficult  and  tedious  because  of  the  involved  complexity 
and  abounding  paradox  of  the  doctrines. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

OSIRIS   AND    HIS   CYCLE. 

/^~\UR  fullest  account  of  the  myth  of  Osiris  and  Isis  is 
^-^  that  given  by  Plutarch  in  a  work  composed  about 
lOO  A.D.^  Omitting  unessential  details  and  the  author's 
remarks  by  the  way,  Plutarch's  story  may  be  rendered  as 
follows  :  Rhea  (Nut),  the  wife  of  Helios  (Ra),  had  had 
secret  commerce  with  Kronos  (Seb).  When  this  became 
known  to  Helios  he  cursed  her  with  the  curse  that  in  no 
month  and  in  no  year  should  she  give  birth  to  her  unborn 
children.  But  Hermes  (Thoth)  also  had  been  the  lover 
of  Rhea,  and  playing  at  draughts  with  Selene  he  won  from 
that  goddess  one  seventieth  of  each  day  in  the  year,  and 
out  of  these  pieces  of  time  made  five  whole  days,  which  he 
intercalated  at  the  end  of  the  three  hundred  and  sixty  days 
of  the  Egyptian  year.  These  new  made  days  were  outside 
the  range  of  the  curse  of  Helios,  and  upon  the  first  of  them 
Osiris  was  born,  a  voice  from  heaven  proclaiming  that  the 
lord  of  all  things  had  appeared.  It  was  also  revealed  to  a 
certain  Pamyles  in  Thebes  that  he  should  loudly  announce 
the  birth  of  the  great  king,  the  beneficent  Osiris,  whom 
Kronos  forthwith  entrusted  to  his  care.  On  the  second 
of  the  five  new  days  Aroeris  (^Her-ilr,  "  Horus  the  Elder  ") 
'  De  Iside  et  Osiride,  cap.  12-19 
207 


208  OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 

was  born,  on  the  third  day  Typhon  (Set),  who  tore  his  way 
through  his  mother's  side,  on  the  fourth  Isis,  and  on  the 
fifth  Nephthys.  Osiris  and  Aroeris  were  considered  as  the 
children  of  Helios,  Isis  as  the  child  of  Hermes,  Typhon 
and  Nephthys  as  the  children  of  Kronos ;  but  some 
accounts  state  that  Osiris  and  Isis  had  been  lovers  before 
birth,  and  that  Aroiiris  was  their  son.  All  accounts,  how- 
ever, agree  in  stating  that  Osiris  and  Isis  were  eventually 
married,  as  were  Typhon  and  Nephthys. 

When  Osiris  came  to  his  kingdom  the  Egyptians  were 
living  a  life  little  better  than  that  of  animals  ;  but  he 
changed  their  miserable  existence,  taught  them  the  art  of 
agriculture,  gave  them  laws,  and  instructed  them  in  the 
worship  of  the  gods.  Subsequently  he  traversed  the  whole 
world  on  a  mission  of  civilization,  and  scarcely  needed  to 
employ  force  in  furtherance  of  his  ends,  but  won  his  way 
by  persuasion  and  teaching,  by  song  and  music  ;  and  it 
was  for  this  that  the  Greeks  identified  him  with  Dionysos. 
During  the  absence  of  Osiris,  Typhon  was  powerless  to 
effect  any  changes,  for  Isis  was  continually  on  the  watch 
and  made  a  stout  resistance  ;  but  after  the  return  of  the 
king  the  evil  one  caught  him  by  guile.  Having  secured 
the  confederacy  of  seventy-two  men  and  of  Queen  Aso  of 
Ethiopia,  Typhon  privily  took  the  measure  of  the  body  of 
Osiris,  made  ready  a  richly  decorated  chest  of  like  dimen- 
sions, and  brought  it  with  him  to  a  royal  feast,  at  which 
it  was  greatly  admired.  Typhon,  as  if  by  way  of  a  jest, 
promised  it  to  any  one  present  whose  body  should  exactly 
fit  it.  One  guest  after  another  tried  it  in  vain  ;  but  at 
length    Osiris    stepped    in    and    lay    down.      Then    the 


LEGEND   OF   OSIRIS,   rLUTARCH.  209 

confederates  sprang  forward,  shut  fast  the  lid,  nailed  it 
down,  soldered  it  with  melted  lead,  and  carrying  it  to  the 
river  sent  it  forth  to  sea  by  the  Tanitic  mouth  of  the  Nile. 
This  befell  on  the  17th  day  of  the  month  Athyr,  in  the 
twenty-eighth  year  of  the  life,  or,  according  to  other 
accounts,  of  the  reign,  of  Osiris. 

When  Isis  learned  what  had  happened  her  mourning 
was  great ;  she  wandered  far  and  wide  seeking  for  the 
body  of  her  husband,  until  at  length  she  heard  from  some 
children  through  which  mouth  of  the  Nile  the  chest  had 
passed  out  to  sea.  She  also  learned  that  Osiris  had  once 
lain  with  her  sister  Nephthys,  taking  her  for  Isis,  and 
seeking  for  their  child  she  found  it  and  cared  for  it. 
The  child  was  known  as  Anubis,  and  became  her  guardian 
and  companion  in  her  wanderings.  In  the  meantime  the 
chest  containing  the  body  of  Osiris  had  floated  ashore  at 
Byblos,  where  it  was  soon  surrounded  and  overgrown  by 
the  stem  of  a  magnificent  Erica.  The  king  of  the  land 
seeing  the  tree  had  it  cut  down,  and  set  it  up  as  a  pillar 
of  his  house,  not  suspecting  that  within  it  was  the  chest 
So  Isis  came  to  Byblos,  and  by  reason  of  the  sweet  smell 
which  emanated  from  her  she  found  favour  with  the  women 
servants  of  the  palace,  obtained  entry  there,  and  was 
appointed  nurse  to  the  king's  child.  The  goddess  nursed 
the  child,  placing  her  finger  instead  of  her  breast  to  his 
mouth,  and  by  nights  burned  away  all  that  was  mortal 
from  his  body,  while  she  herself  flew  mourning  round  the 
column,  in  the  form  of  a  swallow.  But  at  length  she  was 
surprised  by  the  queen,  Astarte,  who  cried  out  when  she 
saw  the  child  in  the  midst  of  the  flames  and  thus  deprived 

14 


210  OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 

him  of  immortality.  Then  the  goddess  revealed  herself  and 
asked  for  the  column,  drew  it  out  easily  from  under  the 
roof,  and  cut  away  the  Erica  from  about  the  coffin.  The 
column  she  wrapped  up  in  a  linen  cloth,  poured  myrrh  over 
it,  and  gave  it  to  the  king  :  thus  it  was  that  she  made 
"  the  wood  of  Isis,"  worshipped  by  the  people  of  Byblos 
down  to  a  late  date.  Then  she  flung  herself  upon  the 
coffin,  sobbing  aloud,  and  finally  carried  it  away  by  ship. 
When  at  length  she  was  alone  she  opened  the  chest,  laid 
her  face  to  that  of  the  dead,  and  kissed  him,  and  wept. 

Afterwards  she  concealed  the  coffin  and  journeyed  to 
her  son  Horus,  who  had  been  brought  up  at  Buto  in  Lower 
Egypt.  Typhon,  hunting  by  moonlight,  found  the  coffin, 
recognized  the  body,  tore  it  into  fourteen  pieces,  and 
scattered  them  far  and  wide.  As  soon  as  Isis  learned  this 
she  took  a  canoe  and  traversed  the  Delta  in  search  of  the 
scattered  members  of  her  husband's  body.  All  but  one  she 
found,  and  at  each  place  of  discovery  a  tomb  of  Osiris  was 
raised.  In  the  meantime  Horus  had  grown  up  ;  he  armed 
himself  to  fight  against  Typhon  ;  the  combat  lasted  many 
days,  and  ended  in  his  victory.  Typhon  was  put  in  chains 
and  delivered  up  to  Isis,  who,  however,  did  not  slay  him, 
but  let  him  go.  At  this  Horus  was  enraged  and  tore  the 
crown  from  off  the  head  of  Isis,  or,  rather,  he  cut  off  her 
head,  which  Hermes  replaced  by  that  of  a  cow.  After  the 
death  of  her  husband  Isis  again  became  with  child  by  him, 
and  bore  prematurely  the  boy  Her-pe-khred,  "  Horus  the 
Child,"  whose  lower  limbs  were  dwarfed  and  stunted. 

This  is  Plutarch's  account,  but  no  such  continuous  story 
can  be  substantiated  from  the  monuments.     Nevertheless 


LEGEND   OF   OSIRIS,   EGYPTIAN    DATA.  211 

it  is  thoroughly  Ancient  Egyptian  in  character,  and  nearly 
all  the  incidents  are  mentioned  incidentally  in  the  texts  and 
continual  allusions  are  made  to  them  :  apparently  the  myth 
was  so  well  known  that  it  was  considered  unnecessary  to 
give  any  complete  account  of  it.  The  falsity  of  the  con- 
clusion based  on  certain  statements  of  Herodotus  that  the 
Osirian  myth  was  a  religious  Mystery  is  best  disproved 
by  a  popular  story  current  in  the  XlXth  Dynasty  and 
known  as  the  Tale  of  the  Two  Brothers.  In  this  a 
number  of  incidents  and  particulars  are  derived  from  the 
myth,  and  in  part  at  least  the  tale  must  have  been  unin- 
telligible to  any  hearer  ignorant  of  the  story  of  Osiris. 
In  treating  of  the  latter  in  detail,  however,iwe  will  confine 
ourselves  to  the  incidents  that  are  of  most  importance 
and   vouched  for  by  the  inscriptions. 

The  Old  Egyptian  year  consisted  of  twelve  months  of 
thirty  days  each,  and  in  order  to  bring  this  into  closer 
conformity  with  the  true  year  there  were  added  to  it 
the  so  called  Epagomenal  days,  which  even  at  an  early 
period  were  celebrated  in  certain  temples  as  those  on 
which  the  five  gods  of  the  Osirian  cycle  were  born.  The 
third  of  these  days,  which  was  held  to  be  the  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  Typhon,  was  reckoned  unlucky,  whereas 
the  beneficent  character  ascribed  to  Osiris  is  marked 
even  by  his  name  of  Umzefer,  "  the  Good  Being  " — which 
was  at  once  his  commonest  title  and  one  of  his  names 
as  Icing.  The  statement  that  the  17th  Athyr  was  kept  as 
the  anniversary  of  his  murder  is  confirmed  by  a  reference 
in  a  XlXth  Dynasty  papyrus,^  giving  that  date  for  the 
'  IV.  SalUer  :    see  below,  p.  264. 


212  OSIRIS   AND   HIS    CYCLE. 

mourning  for  Osiris  in  Sais,  a  coincidence  all  the  more 
noticeable  since  most  Egyptian  texts  place  both  anniversary 
and  mourning  at  the  end  of  the  month  Khoiak.  This 
striking  divergence  ^  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  two 
divinities  had  been  merged  in  Osiris  :  the  dying  and 
dead  Ra,  and  the  god  man  and  king  Osiris.  The  former 
died  at  the  end  of  Khoiak,  on  the  shortest  day  of  the 
year.  Other  races  also  have  regarded  this  as  the  day 
of  the  Sun's  death,' and  of  its  new  birth,  which  in  the  case 
of  Ra  too,  followed  immediately  on  his  death.  Different 
considerations  should  have  determined  the  day  upon 
which  the  death  of  Osiris  was  to  be  celebrated ;  but  none 
the  less  the  Athyr  date  was  discountenanced,  especially 
in  later  times,  when  all  the  gods  were  more  and  more 
regarded  as  solar.  It  still,  however,  continued  to  be 
generally  recognized,  and  is  regularly  quoted  by  the 
classical  writers.  The  earliest  allusion  to  the  death  of 
Osiris  as  occurring  in  the  month  Khoiak  is  found  in  an 
inscription  of  the  XVIIIth  Dynasty.' 

In  other  ways  also  the  fusion  of  Ra  with  Osiris  affected 
the  conception  formed  of  the  latter,  and  tended  to  obliterate 
its  original  character.  The  original  Osiris  was  the  ideal 
man,  or  rather  king,  whose  life  was  the  pattern  life,  whose 
death  showed  how  all,  even  the  best,  must  die,  and  whose 
life  beyond  'death   showed  too,  how   by   the   exercise   of 

'  Occasionally  the  birth  of  the  Osirian  gods  was  fixed  as  having 
taken  place:  on  other  than  the  Epagomenal  days,  and  indeed, 
generally  speaking,  the  Ancient  Egyptian  dating  of  mythological 
events  was  very  uncertain.  Cf.  Wiedemann,  Rec.  de  Trav.,  xviii., 
p.  126. 

^  Wiedemann,  Froc.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  xi.  417. 


LEGEND   OF   OSIRIS,    EGYPTIAN    DATA.  213 

virtue  all  might  attain  to  a  like  continuance  of  personal 
identity.  Although  of  divine  descent,  Osiris  was  not 
supposed  to  have  been  a  god  while  he  lived,  yet  an 
inscription  of  the  XVIIIth  Dynasty  asserts^  that  he  is 
"  the  creator  of  the  world,  which  he  formed  with  his  hand, 
of  its  water,  its  air,  its  plants,  all  its  cattle,  all  birds,  its 
reptiles,  its  quadrupeds,"  thus  assigning  to  him  the  same 
work  which,  according  to  the  usual  acceptation,  had  been 
carried  out  by  Ra,  and  placing  him  in  a  position  which 
is  not  in  logical  harmony  with  that  which  he  occupies 
in  the  myth.  But  even  this  very  text  alludes  to  the 
myth  at  length,  and  says  :  "  Isis  the  Shining  One,  the 
avenger  of  her  brother  (Osiris),  sought  him  and  rested 
not  while  full  of  mourning  she  roamed  through  the  whole 
land  ;  she  rested  not  until  she  had  found  him.  She  made 
light  with  her  feathers,  wind  she  made  with  her  wings  ; 
she  gave  unto  him  funeral  panegyrics.  She  took  his 
seed  from  the  god  and  formed  for  him  an  heir,  she 
suckled  the  child,"  etc.,^  the  child  in  question  being  he 
whom  the  Greeks  called  Harpokrates  and  supposed  to 
have  been  conceived  after  the  death  of  his  father. 

In  later  times  the  wanderings  of  Isis  were  a  favourite 
subject  of  Egyptian  legend.  It  is  related,  for  instance,^ 
how  after  the  death  of  Osiris  Set  shut  up  Isis  and 
Horus  in  a  house,  but  she,  counselled  by  Thoth,  fled  forth 
together  with  her  child.     The  episodes  of  the  flight  are 

1  Ledrain,  Mon.  de  la  Bibl.  Nat,  pis.  21-7,  Cf.  Chabas,  Hymne 
a  Osiris^  in  Rev.  Arch.,  xiv'^-annee  (1857),  PP-  ^5  et  seq.,  193  et  seq. 

2  Hymne  a  Osiris,  11.  15,  16. 

3  Metternichstele,  ed.  Golenischeff,  Leipzig,  1877.  Cf.  Aeg. 
Zeitschr.,  1879,  pp.  i  ff. 


214  OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 

related  in  detail,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  on 
one  occasion  Isis  was  changed  into  a  cow  and  Horus 
into  an  Apis  bull,  that  they  might  go  together  to  the 
place  of  Apis  in  the  Libyan  nome  "to  see  the  god 
Osiris."  Neither  the  change  into  this  animal  form  nor 
the  visit  to  the  city,  which  lay  outside  the  route  of  the 
goddess,  has  any  meaning  in  the  Osirian  myth  :  both 
incidents  are  borrowed  from  the  legend  of  Ra.  It  was 
at  this  spot,  known  as  "  The  Abode  of  the  Cow,"  that 
Ra  had  retired  on  the  back  of  a  cow  at  his  abdication. 

Incidents  connected  with  the  nurture  and  youth  of 
Horus  were  also  interwoven  in  these  legends.  While  in 
quest  of  her  husband's  body  Isis  had  committed  Horus 
to  the  charge  of  the  goddess  Uazit  (Leto),  in  the  city  of 
Buto,  in  the  midst  of  the  marshes  of  the  Delta.  Here, 
though  safe  from  Set,  the  child  was  exposed  to  other 
perils,  and  one  day  suddenly  fell  lifeless  to  earth,  stung 
by  a  scorpion.^  Then  Isis  called  the  god  Ra  to  her  help, 
and  the  sun  bark  stayed  in  its  course.  The  god  Thoth 
disembarked  in  all  the  power  of  his  magic,  and  re- 
stored to  life  the  child,  destined  as  a  man  to  ascend 
the  throne  of  his  father  Osiris  and  to  avenge  his  death 
upon  Set.  The  texts  make  frequent  reference  to  the 
episodes  of  this  long  struggle  between  Horus  and  Set, 
which  was  carried  on  from  one  end  of  Egypt  to  the  other, 
generally  bringing  it  into  connexion  with  the  war  of  Hor- 
behudti  against  the  enemies  of  Ra,  among  whom  Set 
also  appears.  All  the  battles  end  in  favour  of  Horus, 
but  his  victory  is  never  final ;  Set  ever  raises  his  head 
'  Metter7iichstele^  I.e. 


BURIAL   OF   OSIRIS.  215 

anew.  The  theory  that  Seb  settled  the  strife  by  making 
Horus  king  of  the  north  and  Set  king  of  the  south  of 
Egypt,  placing  their  frontiers  somewhat  south  of  Memphis/ 
seems  to  have  been  a  comparatively  late  invention.  The 
strife  was  by  nature  interminable,  for  Horus,  or  rather 
Osiris  whom  he  represented,  was  the  good,  and  Set  the 
evil  principle  always  coexistent  in  the  world  however 
often  Evil  may  be  overcome  by  Good.  Set  is  likewise 
Death,  which  temporarily  conquers  Osiris  ;  but  Good 
triumphs  over  death,  and  not  only  lives  again  in  the  world 
to  come,  but  also  remains  upon  earth,  inasmuch  as  it  leaves 
there  as  its  representative,  Horus,  a  being  similar  in  all 
respects  to  itself. 

The  burial  of  Osiris  is  the  subject  of  long  texts,  and 
the  laments  which  Isis  and  her  sister  Nephthys  are  sup- 
posed to  have  chanted  at  his  coffin,  and  which  represent 
him  sometimes  as  a  Sun  god  pure  and  simple,  are  pre- 
served in  several  examples  varying  in  detail  only."  The 
annual  festivals  in  commemoration  of  his  death,  which 
were  held  in  the  month  Khoiak  and  which  set  forth  his 
burial  and  resurrection,  are  described  minutely  in  a  long 
text  in  the  temple  of  Denderah,^  and  at  the  same  time 
there  is  given  an  enumeration  of  the  different  places 
containing  "graves  of  Osiris."     Other  texts  amplify  this 

'  Stela  of  the  time  of  King  Sabako  :  cf.  Pleyte,  Ae^:  Zeit.,  1876, 
pp.  51-2. 

-  HORRACK,  Lamentations  d Isis  et  de  A^ephthys,  Paris,  1866  ; 
PlERRET,  ktudes  Egypt.,  pp.  20  et  seq.  ;  Budge,  On  the  Hieratic 
Papyrus  of  Nesi-Ainsu,  Arclicsologia,  Hi.,  pp.  11  et  seq.,  65  et 
seq.  :  cf.  Proc.  Soc.  Bid.  Arch.,  ix.,  pp.  13  et  seq. 

^  LORET,  Rec.  de  Trav.  ret.  a  V Eg\pte,  ill.,  pp.  43  et  seq.  ;  iv., 
pp.  21  et  seq.  ;  v.,  pp.  85  et  seq. 


2l6  OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 

list  and  state  also  what  portion  of  the  god's  body  was 
preserved  as  a  sacred  relic  in  each  of  the  sanctuaries 
named  :  thus,  in  Memphis  it  was  the  head,  in  Letopolis 


FIG.    57. — OSIRIS    ^SAR    ENSHRINED   ON    FRONT    OF    A    SQUATTING    FIGUI 
(statue    in    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 

the  neck,  in  Athribis  the  heart.  The  inventories  not 
being  made  on  any  uniform  plan  many  relics  appear  twice 
over  ;  the  head,  for  instance,  is  at  Abydos  as  well  as  at 


OSIRIS,   KING   OF   THE   DEAD,  217 

Memphis,  and  legs  enough  to  supply  several  men  are 
duly  accounted  for.  In  Greek  times  there  were  forty-two 
of  these  Osirian  temples,  and  the  Greeks  called  them 
Serapeums,  borrowing  the  name  from  the  Serapeum  at 
Memphis,  without  regard  to  the  distinction  between  the 
tomb  of  a  dead  bull  which  had  become  an  Osiris  and 
the  sepulchre  of  the  god  man  Osiris  himself  But  to  the 
Egyptians  they  were  the  sanctuaries  of  Osiris,  of  "him 
who  dwells  in  the  Underworld." 

After  his  death  Osiris  became  king  of  the  world  beyond 
the  grave.     This  was  the  capacity  in  which  he  was  wor- 
shipped by  the  Egyptians  :  he  ruled   over  the  dead,  and 
it  was  in  his  presence  that  the  judgment  was  given  which 
decided  on  admission  to  his  kingdom  ;  all  must  therefore 
seek   to   secure  his  favour.     Hence  it   is   that  by  far  the 
greater  number  of  prayers  for  the  dead  and  the  formulas 
of  funerary  offerings  relate  to  him,  and  in  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  funerary  inscriptions  we  may  read  :  "  May 
a  royal  offering  be  given  to  Osiris,  that  he  may  grant  all 
manner  of  good  things,  food  and  drink  to  the  ka  of  the 
deceased,  M.  or  N."     Other  gods  are  named  again   and 
again    in   these  texts,  but  Osiris  is  always  invoked  with 
them,  or  rather  before  them.     The  figure  of  the  god  if 
was  drawn  as  that  of  a  man,  generally  swathed  in  mummy 
wrappings  to  show  that  he  was  a  god  dead  and  buried  ; 
only  the  hands,  grasping  a  sceptre,  were  left  free,  and  the 
green  face  adorned  with  the  long  stiff  beard  which  denoted 
the  dead  who  had  become  as  gods.     His  headdress  con- 
sists of  the  crown  of  Upper  Egypt  and  the  two  feathers 
of  Truth  :  it  was  originally  peculiar  to  himself,  and  is  worn 


210  OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 

by  any  other  god  only  if  he  had  been  merged  in  Osiris  ; 
thus,  for  example,  Ra  has  become  Osiris  when  he  is 
represented  as  a  hawk  with  the  Osirian  crown.^ 


FIG.    58. — ISIS,    Js.r,    STANDING    BEHIND    OSIRIS.       (l.  D.  III.  242,  d.) 

Stela  from  tomb  at  Saqqarah,  XlXth— XXth  Dynasty. 

ISIS    Egyptian   NesJ   or   AsJ,   the   wife   and    sister    of 
Osiris,    is   represented    as   a   woman  holding  the   sign    of 

'  Cf.  for   Osiris,  Lefeisure,  Lc  Mythe   Osirien,   I.   Lcs    Yeux 
d'Horus,  II.  Osiris,  Paris,  1874-5. 


ISIS.  219 

life  in  her  hand,  or  a  papyrus  stem,  |,  the  usual  sceptre 
of  a  goddess  ;  ^  on  her  head  is  a  throne.     This  throne  or 
chair  denotes  nothing  peculiar  to  the  nature  of  the  goddess, 
but  is  merely  the  ideogram  used  in  writing  her  Egyptian 
name,  the   meaning   of  which  is  unknown.     The  Greeks 
imagined  it    to  have  some    connexion  with  the  word  as, 
"  old,"  the   Egyptians  with  the  ejaculation  as,  "  behold,"  - 
neither  of  these  etymologies  being  a  happy  one.     Isis  was 
considered  to  be  the  true  type  of  wife  and  mother,  and 
also  a  most  learned  magician  ;  it  is  in  the  latter  capacity 
that   she  appears    in    the    legend  of  Ra.^     The  cow  was 
sacred  to  her  as  to  all  maternal  deities,  and  hence  she  is 
occasionally  represented  as  cow  headed,  but  more  generally 
as  wearing  the  horns  only,  ^.     Isis,  like  Osiris,  had  many 
centres  of  worship,  but  honour  was  more  especially  paid 
to   her  at   Abydos  and  Mendes,  or  rather  Busiris.     The 
triad  of  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus  is  a  common  one.     In  late 
times  Philae  was  the  centre  of  her  cult ;  here  magnificent 
temples  were   raised  to   her,  and  we   know  from    an    in- 
scription  that  she  was   here    still   regarded   as    a  goddess 
even  in  453  a.d.,  that  is,  seventy  years  after  the  edict  of 
Theodosius  prohibiting  the  worship  of  Egyptian    deities. 
Offerings  were    more  particularly  made   to   her   then   by 
the    Blemmyes,   savage    nomad    tribes    who    continually 
menaced  Egypt,  and  were  hardly  held  at  bay  and   kept 
from  pushing  on  to  Lower  Egypt  by  all  the  power  of  the 
Roman  and  Byzantine  governors. 

^>  The  Decree  of  Canopus,  1.  31,  (jK^nrpov  TraTrvpo.ides,  6  8'd^eaaiu 
al  eeal  ex^ii,  iv  rah  x^P^lv.  It  has  often  been  thought  to  be  a  con- 
ventionalized lotus. 

*  DUMlCHEN,  Kal.  Insck.,  L.  b.  2.         ^  c^gg  ^bove,  pp.  54  e^  seq. 


220  OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 

Nephthys,  Egyptian  Neb-hat,  the  "  Lady  of  the 
House,"  often  appears  in  the  texts,  and  is  occasionally 
named  as  the  mother  of  Anubis,  the  wife  of  Set,  and  the 
like.  She  was  worshipped  in  several  cities,  but  was  really 
nothing  more  than  the  associate  of  Isis  in  her  funeral 
lamentation  for  Osiris.  Even  as  once  she  had  protected 
the  body  of  Osiris,  so  would  she  do  for  the  pious  dead 
among  men  ;  and  when  engaged  in  this  office  she,  like 
Isis,  is  represented  standing  with  wings  outspread  in  pro- 


FIG.  59. — MUMMY   ON    FUNERARY    COUCH. 

(naville,  "todt.,"  I.  208.) 


si     Hapi.  Diliuniitef. 


tection  of  the  mummy.  For  the  rest  she  is  in  human  form 
and  wears  her  ideogram  as  a  headdress,  ^  this  being 
absolutely  necessary,  it  alone  distinguishing  her  from  Isis, 
or  indeed  from  any  other  goddess.  Sometimes  she  wears 
the  cow  horns  and  sometimes  a  solar  disk,  but  this  affords 
no  grounds  for  regarding  her  as  a  solar  deity. 

Set,  the  brother  and  murderer  of  Osiris,^  was  in  every 

^  Pleyte,  La  religion  des  Pre-Israelites,  Utrecht,  1862  ;  Lettre 
d  Deveria,  Leiden,  1863  ;  Set  dans  la  barque  du  Soleil,  Leiden, 
1866;  Meyer,  Set-Typhon,  Leipzig,  1875. 


SET.  221 

respect  his  opposite  ;  he  was  the  personification  of  Evil  as 
opposed  to  Good,  of  the  desert  as  against  the  fertile  land, 
of  drought  as  against  the  Nile,  of  darkness  as  against  light, 
of  foreign  lands  as  against  Egypt,  of  illness  as  against 
health.  The  evil  of  his  nature  favoured  rather  than 
hindered  the  prevalence  of  his  worship.  It  was  in  love 
that  offerings  were  made  to  Osiris,  but  Set  was  wor- 
shipped out  of  fear ;  for  he  was  strong  and  mighty,  a 
terror  to  gods  and  men.  The  kings  were  therefore  anxious 
to  secure  his  favour  :  in  the  Old  Kingdom  they  describe 
themselves  as  being  at  once  both  Horus  and  Set,  that  is, 
the  embodiment  of  the  powers  of  Good  and  of  Evil  ;  and 
Seti  I.  and  other  Pharaohs  of  the  New  Kingdom  by  their 
names  marked  themselves  as  adherents  of  Set.  It  was 
only  in  late  times  that  the  fear  of  him  was  overcome  by 
aversion  to  his  wickedness,  execration  taking  the  place 
of  worship,  and  that  he  was  persecuted  in  the  persons  of 
his  adherents,  viz.  red  haired  men,  who  were  devoted  to 
him,  and  the  animals  sacred  to  him,  such  as  crocodiles, 
asses,  and  hippopotami.  He  was  also  regarded  as  the 
god  of  foreign  lands,  and  foreign  deities,  as  for  example 
Baal,  were  often  represented  in  his  figure,  which  was 
human  and  held  a  sceptre,  Of,  but  with  the  head  taken 
from  some  animal.  This  head  bears  some  resemblance  to 
a  camel's  head,  and  is  the  s^me  as  that  of  the  long  tailed 
fabulous  beast,  the  supposed  incarnation  of  Set,  't^j. 

In  Tanis,  and  in  several  cities  under  Tanitic  influence, 
the  position  of  Set  was  peculiar.  Here  he  was  held  to  be 
a  solar  deity  who  pierced  the  Apep  serpent  with  his  lance, 
and  was    called    "the  beloved   of  Ra,"  "the  son  of  Nut" 


222  OSIRIS   AND    HIS   CYCLE. 

(who  was  almost  invariably  regarded  as  his  mother), 
"  mighty  in  the  sun  bark,"  etc.  But  according  to  the 
original  conception  of  Set  he  was  not  so  much  the  foe 
of  the  Apep  serpent  as  that  serpent  itself :  the  new 
character  in  which  he  appeared  at  Tanis  was  undoubtedly 
the  result  of  his  equation  with  Baal. 


FIG.  60. ■ 


•HEREMHEB    BETWEEN    HOKUS    AND    SET. 
Speos  of  Gebel  Addeh,  Nubia. 


(l.   d.  III.    122,  a.) 


In  the  New  Kingdom  Set  is  very  commonly  known  as 
SUTEKH,  and  the  legend  as  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of 
expulsion  against  the  Hyksos  states  that  Apcpi,  the 
Hyksos  king,  endeavoured  to  make  this  deity  his  sole 
god,  not  serving  the  other  gods  of  the  country.     Under 


HORUS,   SON    OF   ISIS. 


223 


the  XVIIIth  and  XlXth  Dynasties  we  find  Sutekh 
spoken  of  as  the  god  of  the  Kheta,  and  in  this  character 
he  stood  in  a  certain  antagonism  to  Ra  the  god  of  the 
Egyptians.  Radically  the  names  Set  and  Sutekh  are  one, 
differentiated  only  by  the  addition  of  kh — a  method  of 
word  formation  of  which  there  are  other  instances,  and 
which  is  in  harmony  with 
the  Egyptian,  and  indeed 
with  the  Semitic,  tendency 
to  develope  stems  contain- 
ing three  radicals  out  of 
roots  consisting  originally 
of  two. 

From  early  times  Ombos 
in  Upper  Egypt  was  an 
important  centre  of  the 
cult  of  Set.  Here  he  was 
worshipped  as  lord  of  the 
South  Land,  and  occasion- 
ally regarded  as  one  with 
Sebak,  the  crocodile  god. 
He  had  a  temple  at 
Thebes,  and  several 
temples  in  the  Western 
Delta — especially  in  Tanis 
—where  he  was  generally  worshipped  under  the  name  of 
Sutekh. 

HoRUS  the  son  of  Isis  appears  in  the  Osirian  legend,  first  as 
the  child  Her-PE-khred,  "  Horus  the  child,"  Harpokrates, 
with  his  finger  in  his   mouth  ;    secondly  as  the  avenger 


FIG.  61. — HORUS   THE    SON    OF    ISIS,    HER- 
PE-KHRED.      (l.   d.   IV.  63,  C.) 
Erment,  Late  Ptolemaic. 


224 


OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 


of  his  father ;  and  finally  as  his  father's  successor  on  the 
throne  of  Egypt.  His  original  nature  can  no  longer  be 
determined  ;  even  in  prehistoric  times  he  had  already  been 
blended  with  Horus  the  Sun  god,  from  whom  there  is  no 
distinguishing  him  in  the  texts.     Harpokrates  is  sometimes 

the  young  Sun,  just 
risen,  and  his  double, 
Aroeris,  is  almost  purely 
a  Sun  god.  Apart  from 
the  Osirian  legend,  little 
remains  to  show  that 
Horus  had  not  entirely 
lost  his  original  nature  : 
some  few  of  its  charac- 
teristics were  still,  how- 
ever, left  to  him  ;  thus, 
when  the  kings  claim  to 
have  ascended  the  throne 
of  Horus,  the  reference 
is  to  Horus  the  son  of 
Isis,  for  Horus  the  Sun 
god  was  never  reckoned 
as  having  been  king  of 
Egypt.  In  the  lists  of 
the  divine  dynasties  this 
position  is  reserved  for  Ra,  Shu,  etc.,  and  it  was  as  their 
successors  also  that  the  Pharaohs  ruled  over  the  land.  It 
is  because  of  his  equation  with  the  Sun  god  that  Horus 
the  son  of  Isis  is  represented  as  hawk  headed  and  wearing 
the   disk,  instead    of  being    shown    in    human    form,   as 


FIG.  62. — HORUS    AND    AMENOPHIS    II. 

(l.  d.  III.  63,  d.) 
Specs  of  Anienophis  II.  at  Ibrim. 


THOTH. 


225 


might  have  been  expected   for  the  son  of  an  essentially 
anthropomorphic  deity. 

Thoth/  in  Egyptian  DMt.i,  "belonging  to  the  ibis," 
plays  a  comparatively  small  part  in  the  Osirian  myth, 
appearing   only  as  a  counsellor,  or   as    one  who   can  by 


FIG.  63.— IBIS    OF    THOTH.        (FIGURE    IN    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 

magic  make  good  wrong  which  has  been  done.  Thus  it 
was  he  who  placed  a  cow's  head  upon  Isis  after  Horus  had 
cut  off  her  own.  Originally  a  lunar  deity,  he  was  often 
connected  with  Khunsu,  and  with  the  moon  god  Ah,  and 

^  Data  concerning  Thoth  have  to  some  extent  been  ccllectecl  by 
PlETSCHMANN,  Hermes  Tristnegistos,  Leipzig,  1875. 

15 


226 


OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 


had  for  his  sacred  animal  the  cynoccphalus,  whose  sexual 
life  was  supposed  to  be  regulated  by  the  phases  of  the 
moon.  More  usually,  however,  he  was  represented  by 
the  ibis.  Ptah  and  Mut  were  considered  as  his  parents, 
but  not  universally  :  in  Thebes,  for  instance,  where  he 
was  occasionally  substituted 
for  Set  as  the  husband  of 
Nephthys,  he  appears  as  the 
third  member  of  a  triad  con- 
sisting of  Khunsu,  Mut,  and 
himself.  Generally  he  was 
depicted  in  the  form  of  an 
ibis  headed  man,  ^,  usually 
crowned  with  the  solar  disk 
and  with  the  lunar  crescent, 
inasmuch  as  he  was  a  god 
of  time.^  It  was  owing  to  the 
im.portance  of  the  moon  in 
the  measurement  of  time  that 
Thoth  gradually  came  to  be 
considered  as  god  of  time, 
even  in  cases  where  the  moon 
had  nothing  to  do  with  his 
functions  or  with  the  divisions 
of  time  in  question.  Thus 
he,    alone    or    together    with 


FIG.  64. 
THOTH,    DHUT.I.       (l.  D.  HI.  223,  a. 

Stela  in  Hammamat  Valley,  XXth 
Dynasty. 


Safekh.T,  the  goddess  of  writing,  inscribes  the  king's  name 

'  Star  worship  in  any  strict  sense  of  the  term  was  extremely  rare 
in  Egypt ;  two  references  only  are  made  to  it  on  the  monuments, 
and  both  date  from  the  XlXth  Dynasty.  Cf.  Wiedemann,  J^ec.  de 
Trav.,  xvii.,  pp.  ii  et  seq. 


THOTH.  227 

for  its  everlasting  duration  upon  the  sacred  sycomore  ;  ^  it 
is  he  who  promises  the  sovereign  "  the  years  of  Turn,  the 
dominion  of  Horus,  and  millions  of  years  "  ;  and  to  him 
the  first  month  of  the  Egyptian  year  and  the  sixth  hour 
of  the  day  were  dedicated. 

Since  the  moon  is  a  divider  of  time  the  lunar  Thoth 
became  also  the  god  of  just  measurement.  The  cubit,  which 
was  dedicated  to  him,  was  the  measure  used  in  the  planning 
of  temples.  Once,  too,  he  had  measured  out  the  world  and 
given  it  laws  ;  hence  he  is  the  guardian  of  all  law,  acting  in 
this  capacity  both  for  himself  and  at  the  command  of  Ra. 
Moreover  he  was  the  god  of  writing,  the  scribe  of  the 
gods,  and  the  god  of  letters — especially  of  religious 
literature.  Scribes  regarded  him  as  their  tutelary  deity 
and  invoked  his  aid  at  their  work.  He  was  supposed 
to  have  written  the  most  sacred  books  and  formulas  with 
his  own  hand,  and  therein  to  have  set  down  his  knowledge 
of  magic,  in  which  art  Isis  only  was  his  rival.  His  pre- 
eminence in  magic  naturally  led  to  his  becoming  the  god  of 
medicine,  for  magic  was  fully  as  important  to  the  medical 
practitioners  of  the  Nile  Valley  as  knowledge  of  remedies. 

But  it  was  after  death  that  man  most  needed  the  help 
of  Thoth.  When  Osiris  died  Thoth  had  undertaken  to 
provide  him  with  the  correct  magic  formulas  to  use  in 
fighting  against  his  foes,  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  thus 
to  make  him  king  of  the  world  beyond  death.  Each 
Egyptian  hoped  to  receive  like  help  in  his  own  extremity  : 
it  was  Thoth  who  would  restore  to  him  his  speech,  teach 
him  to  recite  the  true  formulas,  with  Anubis  conduct  him 
'  See  illustration  on  p.  156. 


228 


OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 


to  the  Judgment  Hall,  note  down  the  final  judgment,  and 

perhaps  even  speak  for  him  as  his  advocate. 

The  Greeks  identi- 
fied him  with  Hermes 
with  whose  nature 
as  conceived  by 
the  Alexandrians  and 
Neoplatonists  his  was 
not  without  afifinity  ; 
and  the  Greek  method 
of  marking  the  dis- 
tinction of  their  god 
by  calling  him  Her- 
m  e  s  Trismegistos, 
"  Hermes  the  thrice 
great,"  is  not  unlike 
the  Egyptian :  in  later 
times  especially  we 
find  Thoth  qualified 
in  the  inscriptions  as 
"  twice  great." 

In  the  Ra  legends 
also  Thoth  is  promi- 
nent as  the  adviser 
and  scribe  of  the  gods. 


FIG.    65. 
ANUUIS,   Ancpl'l.      (figure    in    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 


The  popularity  of 
his  worship  culmi- 
nated at  the  beginning  of  the  New  Kingdom,  when  the 
Pharaohs  were  called  after  him,  Dliutines  (Thothmosis), 
"  Son  of  Thoth,"  or  Ahmes  (Amasis),  "  Son  of  the  Moon," 


ANUBIS. 


229 


after  the  planet  which  was  his."     Temples,  however,  were 
rarely  raised  in  his  honour. 

An U BIS,  Egyptian  Anepit^^y^zs  depicted  in  human  form, 
but  with  the  head  of  his  sacred  animal,  the  jackal,  vj.  This 
animal  was  mistaken  by  the  Greeks  for  a  dog,  and  hence 
it  was  as  a  dog  that  Anubis  was  introduced  into  Roman 
Isis  worship.  From  time  to  time  the  Egyptians  themselves 
had    fallen    into    this  mistake,  and    isolated  mummies   of 


FIG.    66. 


-ANUBIS    AND    MUMMY. 

"todt.,"  I.   174.) 


(naville, 


dogs  have  occasionally  been  found  in  the  jackal  cemetery 
at  Lycopolis.  Yet,  generally  speaking,  the  dog  was  not 
held  sacred,  although  it  was  domesticated  and  kept  both 
for  hunting  and  in  the  house.  Anubis  was  usually  con- 
sidered the  son  of  Osiris  and  Nephthys,  but  in  a  magical 
text"  Ra  is  named  as  his  father,  probably  only  because 


^  The  correct  translation  of  these  names  is  probably  "  Thoth," 
or  "  the  Moon — has  born  (a  child),"  giving  a  sense  analogous  to  the 
name  Rameses  =  Ra-mes-su,  "  the  Sun  god  has  borne  him." 

"'  Chabas,  Pap.  magique  Harris,  loi. 


230  OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 

Ra  and  Osiris  were  regarded  by  the  writer  as  one.  In 
the  legend  he  is  the  assistant  of  I  sis.  According  to 
Egyptian  belief  he  was  a  special  patron  of  the  dead, 
guarding  them  and  superintending  their  embalmment,  he 
or  Thoth  being  their  guide  into  the  next  world  and 
leading  them  by  the  hand  into  the  Hall  of  Judgment. 
Temples  were  raised  to  him  in  many  places,  but  the  chief 
centre  of  his  cult  was  Lycopolis  in  Upper  Egypt,  the 
Siut  of  to-day.  Here  he  was  worshipped  under  the  name 
or  rather  title  of  Apilat,  "  The  Opener  of  the  Way,"  i.e. 
of  the  Underworld.  Lycopolis  in  the  Delta  was  also 
dedicated  to  him,  and  probably  these  were  the  two  places 
which  the  Egyptian  had  in  mind  when  speaking  of  the 
Anubis  of  the  South  and  the  Anubis  of  the  North,  and 
placing  upon  funerary  stelae  two  jackals  as  guardians 
of  the  deceased.  This  procedure  illustrates  the  fact  that 
though  the  Egyptians  recognized  that  divinities  of  the 
same  name  in  different  centres  of  worship  were  distinct, 
yet  this  did  not  imply  any  belief  in  more  than  one  Anubis. 
It  was  the  Greek  mythographers  who  from  similar  premisses 
first  drew  this  inevitable  conclusion  :  they  assumed  that 
there  must  be  more  than  one  Herakles,  Hermes,  etc., 
because  it  seemed  impossible  to  unite  into  one  biography 
all  the  myths  relating  to  each. 

See,  or,  as  his  name  was  also  written,  Keb,^  was  god 
of  the  earth,  for  which  his  name  was  used  as  an  equivalent 
in  expressions  such  as  "  on  the  back  of  Seb."     The  Greeks 

'  Cf.  Brugsch,  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1886,  pp.  i  et  seq.\  Renouf,  Proc. 
Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  ix.,  pp.  83  etseq.  ;  aXso  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1893,  pp.  125  et 
seq. ;  Rec.  de  Trav.,  xvii.,  pp.  94  ei  seq. 


SEE — NUT. 


23: 


identified  him  with  Kronos,  probably  only  because  as 
father  of  Osiris  he  might  be  considered  as  senior  among 
the  gods.  Shu  was  supposed  to  be  his  father,  and  Nut 
his  wife.  According  to  the  Hsts  of  the  divine  dynasties 
in  Memphis  and  Thebes,  he  was  the  fourth  king  of  Egypt, 
and  therefore  to  be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  younger  gods. 
But  the  mention  of  him  in  the  texts  does  not  seem  to 
favour  this  view,  for  there  he  is  called,  not  king,  but 
nomarch  {erpa)  of 
the  gods,  as  if  at  the 
time  when  his  wor- 
ship arose  there  had 
as  yet  been  no  king 
in  Egypt.  His  sa- 
cred animal  was  the 
goose,  and  some- 
times he  is  supposed 
to  be  connected  or 
even  identical  with 
the  goose  which  laid 

the  egg  whence  issued  the  world.  In  the  Legend  of  the 
Destruction  of  Mankind  he  is  installed  as  king  in  imme- 
diate succession  to  Ra.  His  connexion  with  the  cult  of 
the  dead  is  very  slight ;  nevertheless  he  is  often  named 
incidentally  in  the  texts. 

Nu.T,  usually  represented  as  a  woman,  is  the  female 
personification  of  the  sky,  of  which  she  forms  the  vault 
by  arching  her  body  over  the  earth  and  resting  her  weight 
upon  her  hands  and  feet  ;  Shu  is  sometimes  seen  standing 
below    to    support    her    in  this    uneasy    posture.     On   her 


FIG.    67. — S£B    (kEB)    separated    FROM    NU.T    BY 

SHU.     (brugsch,   "  mythologie,"  p.  210.) 


232 


OSIRIS   AND   HIS   CYCLE. 


travel  the  heavenly  bodies,  over  which  she  also  was  supposed 
to  exercise  some  control.  She  was  "  lady  of  heaven," 
"  mistress  and  mother  of  the  gods,"  "  lady  of  earth."  ^ 

This  goddess  must  be  distinguished  carefully  from  the 
god  named  Nu  or  NUN,  who  represents  the  celestial 
ocean,  the  water  traversed  by  the  solar   bark,   who   was 


FIG.    68. — NU.T    POURING    WATER    FROM    A    I  .\  1  M     J"    I'lCEASED    AND 
HIS    SOUL.       (stela    in    BERLIN    MUSEUM.) 

the  father  of  the  gods,  the  source  of  creation,  and  from 
whom  all  came  forth.  In  late  times  he  was  sometimes 
considered  the  first  of  the  falsely  so  called  gods  of  the 
elements,  and  to  represent,  together  with  his  feminine 
manifestation  Nu.T  or  NuN.T,  the  waters  of  the  Nile. 
'  For  Nut  as  a  cow,  see  illustration  p.  65,  and  pp.  62-4. 


NUN   AND   NUN.T.  233 

This  second  Nut  is  sometimes  figured  as  a  woman 
seated  within  a  palm  or  sycomore  and  pouring  waters  of 
refreshment  from  a  libation  vase  on  the  hands  of  a  soul 
{ba)  crouched  at  the  foot  of  the  tree.^  The  remaining 
deities  of  the  group  to  which  Nun  and  this  Nut  belong, 
and  which  bear  the  names  Heh  and  Heh.t,  Kek  and 
Kek.t,  Nenu  and  Nenu.t,  would  seem  to  be  male  and 
female  forms  of  Eternity,  Darkness,  and  the  Inundation. 
This  interpretation  is,  however,  uncertain,  although  better 
substantiated  than  the  older  explanation  that  they  were 
personifications  of  the  four  elements  :  Water,  Fire,  Earth, 
and  Air.^ 

'  Cf.  pp.  143,  157. 

-  Cf.  Lepsius,  Ueber  die  Goiter  der  vier  Elemettte  bei  den 
Aegyptern,  Abhandlung oi  the  Berlin  Academy,  Berlin,  1856,  an 
article  collecting  all  the  data  given  in  the  inscriptions. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

WE  have  already  seen  one  series  of  Ancient  Egyptian 
ideas  of  a  future  state  to  be  closely  connected  with 
the  myth  of  the  Sun  god  Ra,  and  his  journey  through 
the  Underworld.  These,  however,  formed  the  belief  of  a 
very  restricted  number  :  for  the  vast  majority  of  Egyptians 
of  all  periods  conviction  of  a  life  beyond  death  was  bound 
up  with  the  worship  of  Osiris,  and  on  this  groundwork 
they  pictured  for  themselves  in  detail  the  fate  of  soul  and 
body,  and  developed  a  doctrine  of  immortality  which  in 
precision  and  extent  surpasses  almost  any  other  that  has 
been  devised.  The  scientific  importance  of  the  Osirian 
doctrine  arises  first  fr'om  its  extreme  antiquity — for  even 
in  Pyramid  times  it  was  complete  in  all  its  essential  parts — 
and  also  from  its  many  points  of  affinity  to  Jewish  and 
Christian  dogma. 

A  follower  of  the  Osirian  religion  held  that  when  a  man 
had  died,  when  his  heart  had  ceased  to  beat  and  his  body 
had  become  cold,  nothing  remained  of  him  upon  earth  but 
a  lifeless  hulk  :  the  corpse.  This  was  named  the  Kha,  and 
its  ideogram  was  a  dead  fish,  k  the  sign  for  any  noisome, 
putrid  thing.  The  preservation  of  the  Kha  was  the  first 
duty  of  the  survivors,  and  shortly  after  death  it  was 
234 


EMBALMMENT.  235 

handed  over  to  the  embalmers  that  they  might  so  mani- 
pulate it  as  to  render  it  proof  against  corruption.  But  in 
the  hot  cHmate  of  Egypt  it  was  impossible  to  preserve  the 
body  intact :  the  intestines,  heart,  lungs,  and  liver,  and 
also  the  brain  were  removed,  either  to  be  buried  or  cast 
away,  or  else  to  be  placed  in  vessels  apart ;  although  in 
some  exceptional  cases  they  were  thickly  smeared  with 
asphalt,  and  in  this  unnatural  condition  restored  to  the 
body.  The  body  now  consisted  of  bones,  flesh,  and  skin 
only,  and  after  being  thoroughly  dried  and  shrunk  by 
means  of  natron,  it  was  coated  with  asphalt  and  became 
what  we  call  a  mummy,  a  black  corpse  which  might 
remain  unchanged  for  thousands  of  years  in  the  dry 
climate  of  the  Nile  Valley,  but  which  gradually  falls  into 
decay  when  brought  into  the  damp  atmosphere  of  Europe. 
In  the  cavities  of  the  body  were  laid  all  manner  of 
amulets ;  others  were  placed  on  different  parts  of  the 
body,  especially  about  the  neck,  and  all  was  then  swathed 
in  linen  bandages.  Each  rite  which  had  to  be  performed, 
each  prayer  which  had  to  be  repeated,  was  exactly  pre- 
scribed, and  directions  for  them  are  contained  in  several 
papyri  which  have  come  down  to  us.^  It  is  true  that  the 
same  ceremonial  was  not  observed  in  all  cases  ;  the  rites 
were  more  or  less  complicated  in  proportion  to  the  sums 
which  the  survivors  were  able  or  willing  to  devote  to  the 
service  of  their  dead. 

The  swathed  mummy  was  laid  in  a  coffin  inscribed  with 

'  Rhind  Papyri,  edited  by  Birch,  London,  1863,  and  Brugsch, 
Leipzig,  1865  ;  Hieratic  Papyrus  at  Vienna  in  Bergmann, 
Hieratische  Texte,  Vienna,  1887  ;  others  at  Bdlak  and  Paris  in 
Maspero,  Mem.  sicr  quelques pa;p.  du  Louvre,  Paris,  1875. 


236         THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

prayers  for  the  deceased  together  with  his  names  and 
titles,  and  invocations  of  the  different  deities  charged  with 
his  future  welfare,  all  illustrated  by  vignettes.  In  the 
matter  of  coffins  also,  the  difference  between  rich  and 
poor  was  great,  the  latter  having  to  make  shift  with  few 
texts  and  often  without  coffin  at  all,  while  the  wealthy 
found  their  last  resting  places  within  three  and  even  four 
sarcophagi,  placed  one  within  another  and  adorned  with 
innumerable  inscriptions  and  vignettes. 

The  body  was  returned  to  the  family  in  its  coffin  ; 
sometimes,  if  the  deceased  had  died  in  a  foreign  land,  he 
was  thus  brought  back  to  his  native  city  to  be  laid  in  the 
tomb  which  it  was  the  care  of  an  Egyptian  to  prepare  for 
himself  during  life.  The  mummy  was  borne  in  solemn 
funeral  procession,  accompanied  by  the  family,  the  wailing 
women,  and  the  priests,  from  the  eastern  shores  of  the 
Nile,  where  most  of  the  cities  were  built,  to  the  necropolis 
among  the  western  hills.  If  city  and  necropolis  both  lay 
on  the  same  side  of  the  river,  still  the  crossing  was  per- 
formed, at  least  syhibolically,  by  traversing  the  sacred 
lake  invariably  attached  to  a  city  of  the  dead.  When 
the  tomb,  the  "  eternal  house,"  had  been  reached,  the 
coffin  was  set  up  on  end,  with  face  turned  towards  the 
south,  on  a  small  sandhill  intended  to  represent  the 
Mountain  of  the  West — the  realm  of  the  dead.  There 
the  deceased  was  approached  by  various  persons  who 
prayed  before  him  and  performed  many  sacred  rites, 
the  chief  functionary  being  the  KJier  heb,  who  may  best 
be  described  as  master  of  the  ceremonies.  He  conducted 
the  whole  ritual  ;   papyrus    roll   in  hand,  he   assigned    to 


FUNERAL.  239 

each  his  place,  and  prompted  each  with  the  words  he 
had  to  speak,  or  else  recited  them  in  his  name.  With  the 
Kher  heb  stood  a  servant,  a  friend,  and  a  son  of  the 
deceased,  two  mourning  women,  one  representing  Isis 
and  the  other  Nephthys,  the  sacrificial  priest,  and  other 
persons  who  seem  to  have  been  merely  present  at  the 
proceedings  without  taking  part  in  them.  The  whole 
ceremony  was  intended  as  a  reproduction  of  what  was 
supposed  to  have  taken  place  round  the  coffin  of  Osiris. 

There  is  no  occasion  for  entering  into  the  details  of 
these  complicated  proceedings  :  from  full  and  precise 
descriptions  of  them  which  have  come  down  to  us^  it  is 
evident  that  their  main  object  was  the  restoration  of  all 
bodily  functions  to  the  mummy  preparatory  to  the  long 
journey  which  lay  before  it  in  the  next  world.  The 
mouth  was  symbolically  opened  that  it  might  speak  and 
the  eyes  that  it  might  see;  a  bull  was  slaughtered  that 
the  dead  might  have  food  to  hand  ;  rites  were  performed 
to  enable  it  to  make  use  of  garments,  unguents,  and  many 
other  things,  in  fact  to  make  it  in  all  things  like  a  living 
human  body.  The  mummy  itself  remained  undisturbed  ; 
the  coffin  only  was  manipulated.  For  the  most  part, 
the  end  in  view  was  to  be  accomplished  by  reciting  the 
right  prayer  and  touching  the  mummy  case  with  a  wand 
shaped  like  the  hieroglyph  ,^v-,  ;  sometimes  the  sym- 
bolical passes  were  made,  with  the  same  effect,  upon  a 
statue  of  the  deceased  instead  of  upon  his  coffin.     After 

^'S>CYi\xvkR.^\AAjlLibrodeiFunerali,Tviim,  1881-90;  Maspero, 
Rev.  de  I'Hist.  des  Rels.,  xv.,  pp.  162  et  seq.  ;  Etudes  de  Mythologie, 
i.,  pp.  283  et  seq. 


240         THE   OSIRIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

this  ceremony  was  completed  the  body  was  lowered  into 
the  grave  and  the  shaft  closed,  and  when  all  was  over 
a  funeral  feast  was  held  in  the  antechamber  of  the 
tomb/  Henceforth  there  was  nothing  more  that  the 
friends  and  relatives  of  the  deceased  could  do  for  him 
except  to  present  him  with  offerings  either  directly  or 
through  the  gods,  and  to  constrain  the  gods  with  magic 
formulas  to  deal  kindly  by  the  dead. 

In  addition  to  his  body,  thus  made  into  a  perfect 
mummy,  or,  as  the  Egyptians  would  have  called  it,  an 
Osiris,  man  had  also  an  immortal  soul.  This  was  not 
considered,  as  among  most  races,  a  simple  entity,  but  a 
composite  one :  in  life  the  component  parts  had  been 
united  ;  at  death  they  parted,  each  to  find  its  own  way 
to  the  gods.'^ 

First  among  these  parts  was  the  so  called  Ka,  imagined 
as  similar  to  a  man  and  yet  not  a  man,  and  which  stood 
to  him  somewhat  in  the  same  relation  as  the  verbal  ex- 
pression of  some  tangible  reality  to  that  reality  itself,  or 
as  the  name  of  any  one  to  the  person  whom  it  designates. 
The  notion  of  a  Ka  was  probably  suggested  by  the  fact 
that  the  image  of  the  dead  or  of  one  who  is  far  away 
may  be  seen  in  thought  or  dreams.  Hence  it  was  believed 
that  man  was  not  simply  a  material  being  who  could  be 
in  only  one  place  at  once,  but  that  he  included  a  second 
self,  able  to  pass  through  walls  or  barriers,  bound  neither 

'  An  exceptional  practice  sometimes,  however,  prevailed  of  keep- 
ing the  mummies  in  accessible  chambers  above  ground.  See  Proc. 
Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  xvii.,  p.  156. 

*  Wiedemann,  The  Ancient  Egy;ptiati  Doctrine  of  Itmnortality , 
London,  1895. 


THE   KA.  241 

by  time  nor  space,  and  which  might  exist  for  thousands 
of  years.  The  Ka  has  thus  several  points  of  affinity  with 
the  Ren,  or  name  of  a  man,^ — the  sound  of  which  evokes 
an  image  of  him  in  the  mind  of  the  hearer — and  with  a 
portrait  statue.  Similar  conceptions  of  personality  as 
apart  from  a  person  are  found  among  the  most  divergent 
races,  but  an  extreme  development  of  the  idea  in  one 
direction  was  peculiar  to  the  Egyptians :  they  turned  this 
abstraction  back  into  the  concrete,  and  endowed  it  with 
a  tangible  form  dependent  upon  food  for  its  continued 
existence. 

At  death  a  man,  as  such,  ceased  to  be.  His  body  was 
made  into  a  mummy  and  placed  within  a  coffin,  and 
this  experience  had  shown  that  no  mummy  could  ever 
leave.  The  Ka,  which  had  been  the  companion  of  the 
body  in  life,  at  death  attained  to  independent  existence. 
It  was  to  the  Ka  that  funerary  prayers  and  offerings  were 
made ;  to  the  mummy  alone  they  were  useless.  But 
when  the  Ka  returned  to  the  mummy,  entered  into  it, 
animated  it,  and  became  "  the  Ka  living  in  its  coffin,"  then 
the  two  united  were  able  to  lead  something  of  the  same 
life  that  they  had  led  together  on  earth,  eating,  drinking, 
and  going  to  and  fro  to  visit  the  survivors  and  remind 
them  of  their  duty  in  the  matter  of  funerary  offerings. 
This  procedure  was  more  incumbent  upon  the  poor  man's 
Ka  than  upon  that  of  the  rich,  who  could  in  his  lifetime 
ensure  for  himself  the  needful  supplies  by  entering  into 
a  contract  with  the  priests  of  the  dead  in  his  own 
neighbourhood,  making  over  to  them  land  and  property 
^  See  below,  pp.  293-5. 

16 


242         THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF    IMMORTALITY. 

in  exchange  for  their  bond  to  present  his  Ka  with  care- 
fully specified  offerings  on  certain  feast  days.  The  poor 
man  could  make  no  such  provision  for  himself :  he  was 
dependent  after  death  upon  the  piety  of  his  family. 

A  great  proof  of  the  firm  root  which  this  idea  of  the  Ka 
had  taken  in  the  Egyptian  mind  is  afforded  by  the  fact 
that  it  was  believed  to  be  an  indispensable  constituent  of 
every  being  which  had  life,  Kas  being  ascribed  to  the  gods 
themselves  even  in  Pyramid  times. 

The  Ab,  or  heart,  the  second  of  these  immortal  parts, 
will  be  dealt  with  in  the  chapter  on  amulets. 

The  third  part  was  the  Ba,  which  best  corresponds  to 
our  idea  of  the  soul.  It  was  imagined  as  being  in  the 
form  of  a  bird,  usually  with  human  head  and  hands.  At 
death  it  flew  to  the  gods  ;  but  it  was  no  more  immaterial 
than  the  Ka,  and  equally  dependent  upon  renewed  supplies 
of  food  and  drink.  In  Egyptian  art  the  Ba  is  some- 
times shown  perched  on  the  coffin,  tenderly  caressing  it, 
and  taking  farewell  of  the  mummy  within. 

In  the  fourth  place  we  have  the  Sahu,  figured  as  the 
swathed  mummy  of  the  deceased,  the  empty  form  of  him- 
self which,  having  come  to  him  from  the  godhead,  could 
therefore  at  death  return  to  it.  And  there  was  the 
Khaib,  or  shadow  of  a  man,  which  also  passed  for  a 
separate  entity  that  might  be  parted  from  its  owner, 
and  was  indeed  invariably  parted  from  him  when  he 
died.  The  Khaib  was  usually  symbolized  as  a  sunshade. 
Again,  there  was  the  Kliu,  the  Shining  One,  a  con- 
ception apparently  suggested  b\'  the  idea  of  a  glorified 
and  luminous  mummy,  and  the  Skkiiem,  the  personified 


THE   OSIRIS.  243 

power  .or  strength  of  the  deceased/  not  to  mention  other 
constituents  of  a  man's  being  less  frequently  insisted  upon. 
But  far  more  important  than  any  of  these,  and  the  chief 
immortal  representative  of  man  as  a  whole,  was  his  Osiris. 

The  Osiris  was  the  immortal  counterpart  of  the 
mummy.  The  equipment  of  the  mummy  was  the  equip- 
ment of  the  Osiris  ;  the  amulets  bestowed  upon  the 
mummy,  the  furniture  placed  in  its  tomb,  all  became 
possessions  of  the  Osiris.  But  even  as  the  other  immortal 
parts  of  a  man  left  him  at  death,  so  also  did  his  Osiris. 

These  supposed  entities  are  obviously  very  similar 
in  function  ;  several,  such  as  Ka,  Osiris,  and  Sahu, 
personify  almost  the  same  idea,  and  it  would  seem  that 
in  these  cases  we  have  to  do  with  the  different  con- 
ceptions of  an  immortal  soul  which  had  arisen  in  separate 
places  and  prehistoric  times,  and  were  ultimately  com- 
bined into  one  doctrine,  the  Egyptians  not  daring  to  set 
any  aside  for  fear  it  should  prove  to  be  the  true  one. 
All,  therefore,  were  retained,  regardless  of  the  logical 
embarrassments  inevitably  brought  about  by  such  a  course. 
The  fusion  of  these  beliefs  took  place  at  a  very  early 
period  and  its  history  cannot  now  be  traced  :  even  in 
the  times  of  the  Pyramid  builders  it  had  already  been 
accomplished,  and  there  can  be  little  profit  in  speculating 
as  to  how  it  came  about  until  better  evidence  for  the 
settlement  of  the  question  is  forthcoming.  One  thing, 
however,  is  clear  :  the  Osirian  doctrine  was  that  which 
obtained  the  largest  following,  for  it  put  all  other  theories 
into  the  background.  While  little  or  nothing  is  stated 
•  Cf.  Wiedemann,  Le  Miiseon,  xv.,  pp.  46  et  seq. 


244         THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF    IMMORTALITY. 

in  detail  as  to  the  fate  of  the  other  immortal  parts  of 
a  man's  being,  and  we  are  only  told  that  at  death  they 
left  the  body  and  were  dispersed,  but  were  reunited  in 
the  Osiris  after  the  Last  Judgment,  with  the  fate  of  the 
Osiris  himself  the  texts  deal  at  wearisome  length.  And 
this  is  because  the  Egyptian  hope  of  eternal  life  was 
bound  up  in  the  god  Osiris,  and  therefore  preference 
was  given  to  that  conception  of  the  soul  which  had  such 
affinity  to  Osiris  as  to  be  called  by  his  name. 

The  most  important  and  widely  diffused  of  all  Egyptian 
religious  writings  is  the  so  called  BOOK  OF  THE  Dead, 
which  is  specially  devoted  to  the  Osiris.  It  is  a  collection 
of  prayers  and  formulas  to  be  spoken  by  him  in  traversing 
the  regions  of  the  Underworld,  and  secured  to  him  victory 
over  evil  demons  and  protection  from  good  ones.  The 
oldest  copies  of  the  work  date  from  the  Middle  Kingdom  ; 
these,  however,  are  rare.  Commoner  use  was  made  of 
it  in  the  New  Kingdom,  and  in  later  times  a  copy  of  at 
least  some  portion  of  the  book  was  placed  with  every 
mummy    of    the     better    class.^      The    contents    of    the 

'  The  oldest  of  these  texts  are  given  by  Lepsius,  Aelteste  Texte 
des  Todtenbuches,  Berlin,  1867  ;  Maspero,  Mem.  de  la  Miss,  au 
Caire,  i.  155  ff. ;  Lepsius,  Doikm.,  ii.  98,  99,  145-8.  Later  texts 
may  be  found  in  Naville,  Das  cigypt.  Todtenbuch  der  18 — 20 
Dy?i.,  Berlin,  1886  (cf.  Maspero,  Le  Livre  des  Marts,  in  Rev.  de 
V Hist,  des  Rel.,  1887);  DE  Rouge,  Rituelfimcraire,  Paris,  1867. 
Very  late  texts  are  given  in  Lepsius,  Das  Todtenbuch  der 
Aegypter  Jiach  dent  hierogly-pJiischen  Papyrus  in  Turin,  Berlin, 
1842;  Pap.  Cadet,  in  Descr.  d'^g.  Ant.,  ii. ;  etc.  A  translation 
of  the  whole  work  on  the  basis  of  the  Turin  text  has  been  made  by 
Birch  in  Bunsen,  Egypf  s  Place  in  Ufiiversal  History,  v.,  pp.  123 
et  seq.  ;  by  Pierret,  Le  Livre  des  Marts,  Paris,  1881  ;  and  lastly, 
working  from  Naville's  text,  by  LEPAGE  Renouf,   The  Egyptian 


BOOK   OF   THE   DEAD.  245 

dififerent  transcripts  vary.  The  whole  work  consisted  of 
separate  chapters  or  books,  each  intended  for  some 
particular  emergency  ;  the  rich  and  pious  Egyptian  had 
as  many  of  them  as  possible  transcribed  on  the  papyrus 
placed  in  his  grave,  or  upon  the  walls  of  his  tomb  and  on 
the  inside  and  outside  of  his  mummy  cases  :  for  the  poor 
a  few  of  the  more  important  extracts  had  to  suffice.  The 
chapters  altogether  amount  to  over  two  hundred,  but  there 
is  no  one  manuscript  containing  them  all  ;  a  selection  was 
always  made,  partly  at  the  choice  of  the  purchaser,  partly 
in  accordance  with  the  taste  and  tendencies  of  the  time, 
sometimes  one  and  sometimes  another  set  of  extracts  being 
in  favour.  In  the  course  of  centuries  the  material  for 
selection  increased  :  the  oldest  of  the  transcripts  are  some- 
what short,  but  as  time  went  on  they  grew  longer  and 
longer.  It  is  not  known  at  what  period  the  work  originated. 
The  pyramids  contain  comparatively  few  passages  that 
were  utilized  later  in  the  composition  of  the  Book  of  the 
Dead  :  their  texts  do  indeed  provide  magic  formulas  for  use 
in  the  next  world  ;  generally,  however,  these  are  worded 
differently.  But  as  they  presuppose  a  knowledge  of  all 
the  main  incidents  in  the  Osirian  legend,  and  also  allude 
in  detail  to  the  doctrine  of  immortality  based  upon  it, 
presumably  these  texts  represent  more  especially  the  forms 
of  belief  prevailing  at  Memphis,  and  not  the  Osirian 
doctrine  as  taught  even  then  at  Heliopolis  and  Abydos. 
There    is    no    systematic  arrangement    in    the    Book  of 

Book  of  the  Dead,  in  Proc.  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch.,  xv.,  etc.  Erman 
in  Aeg.  Zeit.,  1894,  pp.  2  et  seq.,  has  given  an  example  of  how 
individual  chapters  arose. 


246         THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

the  Dead  any  more  than  in  other  religious  texts  of  the 
Egyptians.  It  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  two  copies  in  which 
the  chapters  follow  the  same  sequence  ;  the  order  of  the 
chapters  or  groups  of  chapters  seems  to  have  been 
entirely  optional.  Nor  was  any  attention  paid  to  the 
logical  and  natural  sequence  of  events  ;  for  example,  the 
prayers  by  means  of  which  the  beatified  soul  was  enabled 
to  take  on  various  forms  generally  precede  the  chapter 
whereby  it  was  to  attain  to  beatification.  And,  though 
not  quite  so  embarrassing,  still  it  is  inconvenient  that  the 
deceased  should  receive  from  the  beginning  the  epithet 
to  which  he  only  becomes  entitled  later,  and  is  invariably 
spoken  of  as  mad  kherii,  "  true  of  voice  "  (or  rather,  accord- 
ing to  the  usage  of  the  word  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead, 
"  pronounced  justified  "  ^),  although  it  is  only  the  sequel 
that  can  show  whether  he  possessed  or  even  in  the  end 
attained  the  presupposed  attribute.  The  practice  was 
probably  based  on  feelings  akin  to  those  with  which  the 
Germans  habitually  speak  of  their  dead  as  seli^,  "  blessed," 
hoping  that  blessedness  may  indeed  be  their  lot. 

The  teachings  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead  are  supple- 
mented by  many  other  texts,  usually  of  a  later  date. 
In  Ptolemaic  times  and  even  earlier  there  was  a  demand 
for  compilations  of  passages  from  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
and  other  works  which  should  contain  only  the  most 
essential  formulas,  and  which  were  intended  for  the  private 
use  of  small  circles  of  believers,  or  even  for  individuals, 
and  not  for  the  great  majority,  who  still  held  fast  by  the 
Book  of  the  Dead  itself     Some  of  these  collections  had 

'  For  the  meaning  of  this  word,  see  below,  pp.  279-80,  and  note. 


BOOK   OF    THE   DEAD.  247 

a  comparatively  wide  circulation,  as,  for  instance,  "  The 
Book  of  the  Breath,"  "  The  Second  Book  of  the  Breath," 
"  The  Book  of  Journeying  in  Eternity,"  "  The  Book  of 
'  May  my  Name  flourish,'  "  etc.,  while  others  are  found 
in  single  examples  only  and  probably  never  existed  in 
duplicate.^ 

The  texts  dealing  with  the  Sun's  journey  through  the 
Underworld  yield  a  tolerably  clear  picture  of  a  world  to 
come,  but  this  is  not  the  case  with  the  Book  of  the  Dead, 
and  it  would  be  impossible  to  set  down  as  in  a  map  the 
regions  which  it  describes.  Mention  is  made  of  rivers, 
of  several  territories,  of  gates  which  must  be  passed,  of 
chapels  wherein  dwell  gods,  of  demons  lying  in  wait  for 
souls  at  various  points,  of  lakes  of  fire,  and  of  islands  ; 
but  how  all  these  details  fitted  together  was  obviously 
outside  the  apprehension  even  of  the  Egyptian  priests, 
otherwise  there  would  be  at  least  some  thread  of  con- 
sistency running  through  the  description  of  the  journey- 
ings  of  the  Osirian  soul.  In  view  of  this  confusion  and 
because  the  isolated  incidents  are  of  comparatively  slight 
importance  in  any  attempt  to  deal  with  the  Egyptian 
religion  as  a  whole,  we  may  here  dismiss  these  journey- 
ings  from  our  further  consideration.  Suffice  it  to  note 
that  by  help  of  the  formulas  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
the   soul    succeeded   in    overcoming    all    the   evil    spirits, 

'  Brugsch,  Sai  en  Sinsin,  Berlin,  1851  ;  de  Horrack,  Le 
Livre  des  Respirations,  Paris,  1877;  von  Bergmann,  Das  Buck 
vom  Durchwandeln  der  Ewigkeit,  SUzu7igsber.  of  Vienna  Akad., 
1886,  pp.  369  et  seq. ;  Lieblein,  Le  Livre  Egyptie7i :  Que  mon  nom 
fleurisse,  Leipzig,  1895  ;  Pap.  Louvre  No.  3283,  edited  by  Wiede- 
mann, Ilierat.  Texte,  Leipzig,  1879. 


248         THE   OSIRIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

constraining  all  the  good  ones  to  show  it  favour,  in 
opening  all  doors,  and  eventually  in  coming  to  judgment 
in  the  Hall  of  the  Two  Truths,  i.e.  Truth  and  Justice. 

Here,  upon  a  chair  beneath  a  canopy,  sat  "  Osiris  the 
Good  Being,  the  Lord  of  Life,  the  Great  God,  the  Lord 
of  Abydos,  the  King  of  Eternity."  In  his  hand  he  held 
a  royal  sceptre  and  a  flail,  and  his  crown  was  upon  his 
head.  Some  representations  of  this  scene  place  the 
symbol  of  Anubis  in  front  of  Osiris  ;  in  others  Anubis  is 
engaged  on  the  other  side  of  the  hall  in  introducing  the 
soul,  which  must  otherwise  make  its  entry  alone.  Before 
Osiris  sat  the  forty-two  judges  of  the  dead,  each  summoned 
from  a  different  city  in  Egypt,  each  to  pronounce  sentence 
upon  the  dead  with  regard  to  some  particular  sin.  There 
also  stood  before  the  god  the  four  funerary  genii  :  the 
human  headed  Amset,  the  ape  headed  Hait,  the  jackal 
headed  DUAMUTEF,  and  the  hawk  headed  Kebehsenuf.^ 
These  had  charge  of  the  viscera  of  the  dead  and  were 
bound  to  appear  at  the  judgment,  because,  according  to 
Egyptian  belief,  it  was  not  the  divine  Ego  of  a  man  which 
sinned,  but  only  his  internal  organs.  The  deceased  was 
received  by  the  goddess  or  goddesses  of  truth.  He  pro- 
ceeded to  speak  in  his  own  justification,  declaring  that  he 
had  not  committed  any  one  of  the  forty-two  sins,  and 
then  the  truth  of  his  words  was  tested  by  weighing  his 
heart  in  the  scales  against  the  symbol  of  truth.  Horus 
superintended  the  weighing,  occasionally  assisted  by  Anubis 
or  Thoth,  the  latter  being  usually  present  as  Scribe  of 
the  Gods  to  set  down  the  result  of  the  proceedings. 
'  Sec  illustration  on  p.  220. 


BOOK   OF   THE   DEAD.  249 

If  the  dead  was  found  to  be  righteous  he  received  back 
his  heart,  the  rest  of  the  immortal  parts  of  his  soul  were 
reunited  in  him,  and  he  was  again  built  up  into  the  man 
who  had  walked  the  earth,  but  who  now  entered  upon 
new  and  eternal  life.  What  befell,  according  to  the 
Osirian  doctrine,  if  judgment  went  against  him  is  un- 
certain. Presumably  for  such  an  one  there  was  no  re- 
edification,  and  the  Osiris  died  a  second  death,  followed 
by  his  complete  annihilation.  In  many  representations 
the  figure  of  a  female  hippopotamus  may  be  seen  in  the 
judgment  hall.  She  is  indicated  as  the  Devourer  of  the 
Underworld,  and  has  often  been  supposed  to  be  a  monster 
to  whom  the  unjustified  dead  were  handed  over :  how  far 
this  interpretation  is  correct  we  cannot  determine.  Gener- 
ally the  animal  seems  to  have  been  placed  there  simply 
as  guardian  of  the  entrance  to  the  Fields  of  the  Blessed, 
but  sometimes  it  is  likened  to  Set.  Elsewhere  it  is  said 
that  the  judges  of  the  dead  slay  the  wicked  and  drink 
their  blood.  In  brief,  here  also  we  have  conflicting  state- 
ments, and  can  only  gather  that  there  seems  to  have  been 
no  general  agreement  among  the  dwellers  in  the  Valley 
of  the  Nile  as  to  the  ultimate  lot  of  the  wicked. 

The  j.udgment  before  Osiris  forms  the  subject  of  Chapter 
CXXV.  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  and  here  we  have 
specified  the  words  which  the  deceased  was  to  speak  in 
the  judgment  hall.  In  the  Turin  text  the  first  part  of 
this  chapter  is  as  follows  : — 

"  Hail  to  you,  ye  lords  of  the  Two  Truths  !  Hail  to 
thee.  Great  God  (Osiris),  Lord  of  the  Two  Truths  !  I  come 
unto  thee,  thou  my  lord  ;  I  draw  nigh  unto  thee  to  behold 


250         THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

thy  beauties.  I  have  learned  and  know  thy  name ;  I 
know  the  names  of  the  forty-two  gods  who  are  with  thee 
in  the  Hall  of  the  Two  Truths,  who  live  and  keep  watch 
on  the  wicked,  who  eat  of  their  blood  on  that  day  of 
trying  words  before  the  Good  Being,  the  Justified  {mad 
khevti)  One  (Osiris).  Hail !  Twofold  Spirit !  Lord  of  the 
Two  Truths  is  thy  name.  Hail  !  I  know  you,  ye  lords  of 
the  Two  Truths ;  I  bring  unto  you  Truth,  I  destroy  Evil 
for  you  ! 

"  I  have  not  committed  fraud  and  evil  against  men. 

I  have  not  oppressed  my  fellow  men  (?)  — otherwise  said, 
my  comrades. 

I  have  not  diverted  justice  in  the  judgment  hall 

I  have  not  known  meanness. 

I  have  not  committed  wickedness. 

I  have  not  (as  overseer)  caused  a  man  to  do  more  than 
his  day's  work. 

I  approach  the  bark  of  the  offering  (?),  I  approach  the 
place  of  him  who  offers  the  prescribed  offerings. 

I  have  not  given  way  to  anxious  care. 

I  have  not  been  em'pty  (of  good). 

I  have  not  been  weak. 

I  have  not  been  wretched  (?). 

I  have  not  done  that  which  is  an  abomination  to  the  gods. 

I    have    not  caused    a   slave  to   be   ill    treated    by   his 
overseer. 

I  have  not  brought  any  to  hunger. 

I  have  not  caused  any  to  weep. 

1  have  not  committed  murder. 

I  have  not  caused  any  to  be  guilefully  murdered. 


BOOK   OF   THE   DEAD,   NEGATIVE   CONFESSION.      25 1 

I  have  not  wrought  deceitfully  against  any  man. 

I  have  not  spoiled  the  bread  of  offering  in  the  temples. 

I   have  not  taken  away  from  the  bread  of  offering  of 
the  gods. 

I  have   not  stolen  the  garments   or  wrappings  of  the 
.glorified  ones  (the  dead). 

I  have  not  committed  fornication. 

I  have  not  defiled  myself  as  priest  of  the  god  of  my  city. 

I  have  not  added  to,  (and) 

I  have  not  diminished  the  offerings. 

I  have  not  added  to  the  weight  of  the  balance. 

I  have  not  taken  milk  from  the  mouths  of  children. 

I  have  not  taken  cattle  in  their  pasture. 

I  have  not  taken  in  nets  the  birds  of  the  gods. 

I  have  not  taken  the  fish  in  their  (the  gods')  fishponds. 

I  have  not  turned  aside  the  water  (from  a  neighbour's 
field)  at  the  time  of  inundation. 

I  have  not  cut  off  an  arm  of  the  river  in  its  course. 

I  have  not  extinguished  the  fire  in  its  season  {i.e.  the 
time  during  which  it  was  to  be  kept  alight). 

I  have  not  defrauded  the  Ennead  of  the  Gods  of  that 
which  was  theirs  (?). 

I  have  not  driven  back  (from  my  fields  ?)  the  herds  of 
the  temple  lands. 

I  have  not  turned  back  a  god  at  his  coming  forth  (in 
procession  from  his  temple)." 

After  some  intervening  formulas  in  which  the  deceased 
declares  himself  to  be  one  of  the  blessed  ones  who  have 
risen  from  the  dead,  there  follows  a  second  "  Negative 
Confession."     This  is  distinguished  from  the  first  in  that 


252         THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

it  is  divided  into  forty-two  lines,  each  opening  with  the 
invocation  of  a  certain  demon,  genius,  or  spirit  whose 
dweUing  place  is  duly  named,  and  concluding  with  the 
mention  of  a  sin  which  the  deceased  asserts  that  he  has 
not  committed.  The  formula  runs  :  "  O  thou  Strider  forth, 
who  proceedest  from  Heliopolis,  I  have  not  done  evil  "  ; 
"  O  thou  Opener  of  the  Mouth,  w  ho  proceedest  from 
Babylon  (now  Old  Cairo),  I  have  done  no  injury,"  etc. 
The  sins  repudiated  are  on  the  whole  the  same  as  those 
enumerated  in  the  first  confession  ;  many  of  them  are,, 
however,  specified  in  greater  detail  in  order  to  bring  up 
the  number  to  forty-two.  But  let  it  be  observed  that 
here  also  the  deceased  claims  that  he  has  not  robbed, 
nor  been  covetous,  has  slain  no  temple  cattle,  has  not 
been  an  eavesdropper,  has  not  been  furious,  has  not  been 
deaf  to  words  of  truth,  has  cursed  none,  and  especially 
not  the  king,  his  own  father,  or  a  god. 

The  significance  of  this  Negative  Confession  lies  in 
the  fact  that  it  gives  us  the  standard  of  Egyptian  morality, 
showing  the  nature  and  multiplicity  of  the  misdeeds  to 
be  avoided  by  him  who  would  enter  into  the  realm  of 
Osiris.  This  testimony  to  the  emphasis  which  the 
Egyptians  laid  on  morality  is  confirmed  from  the  most 
\-arious  sources.  We  have  several  examples  of  papyri 
containing  exhortations  to  good  conduct,  and  strict 
injunctions  as  to  the  right  course  to  pursue  under  vary- 
ing circumstances.  The  oldest  of  them  dates  from  the 
Xllth  Dynasty  and  is  known  as  the  Prisse  Papyrus, 
being  called  after  the  name  of  its  discoverer  ;  the  latest 
is   written    in    demotic ;   and    there   arc    texts    of  similar 


EGYPTIAN    MORALITY.  253 

import  which  are  of  intermediate  date.  In  much  of  their 
matter,  and  sometimes  even  in  verbal  expression,  these 
papyri  recall  the  collection  of  proverbs  in  the  Bible,  the 
Wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  Proverbs  of  Jesus  Sirach,  and 
many  of  the  other  Biblical  exhortations.  P'or  instance,  in 
the  Prisse  Papyrus  the  Fourth  Commandment  is  found  in 
almost  identical  terms  :  "  The  son  who  hearkens  to  the 
word  of  his  father,  he  shall  grow  old  thereby."  Other 
texts  exhort  to  the  study  of  wisdom,  to  regard  and 
Tespect  for  parents  and  superiors,  to  mercifulness,  gener- 
osity, discretion,  integrity,  sobriety,  chastity,  and  the  like. 
,In  the  funerary  inscriptions  the  dead  often  plead  their 
good  deeds.  "  I  did  that  which  was  right,"  says  one 
Egyptian  ;  "  I  hated  evil  ;  I  gave  bread  to  the  hungry 
and  water  to  the  thirsty,  clothing  to  the  naked,  succour 
to  him  who  was  in  need."  "  I  harmed  not  a  child,  I 
injured  not  a  widow ;  there  was  neither  beggar  nor  needy 
in  my  time  ;  none  were  anhungered,  widows  were  cared 
for  as  though  their  husbands  were  still  alive."  "  I  did  that 
which  was  pleasing  to  my  parents ;  I  was  the  joy  of  my 
brethren,  the  friend  of  my  companions,  honourably  minded 
towards  all  my  fellow  citizens.  I  gave  bread  to  the 
hungry  and  shelter  to  the  traveller  ;  my  door  stood  open 
to  him  who  entered  from  without,  and  I  refreshed  him."  ^ 
The  Confession  was  heard  in  silence  by  Osiris  and  his 

^  Prisse,  Facsimile  d'un  Papyrus  Egyftien,  Paris,  1847  (cf. 
ViREY,  Etude  sur  le  Pa;pyrtts  Prisse,  Paris,  1887)  ;  Mariette, 
Pa;p.  de  Botclak,  i.,  pis.  15-23  (cf.  Chabas,  HEgyptologie,  1876-8)  ; 
Pierret  in  Rec.  de  Trav.,  i.,  pp.  40  ei  seq.  (cf.  Lepage  Renouf, 
Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion  illustrated  by  the  Religion  of 
Ancient  Egypt,  London,  1880,  pp.  71  et  seq.). 


254         THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF    IMMORTALITY. 

assessors  :  they  testified  neither  approval  nor  disapproval  : 
the  truth  of  the  affirmations  would  be  settled  by  the 
weighing  of  the  heart.  This  being  concluded  in  his 
favour,  the  new  man  was  conducted  into  the  FIELDS  OF 
Aalu  (or  Aaru),  into  the  kingdom  of  the  blessed  followers 
of  Osiris,  which  was  a  country  modelled  altogether  on 
earthly  lines,  but  especially  resembling  the  Delta :  a 
Nile  ran  through  it  divided  into  many  branches  and 
forming  many  islands.  Here  the  dead  ate  and  drank,, 
went  hunting,  fought  with  their  foes,  enjoyed  themselves 
with  their  friends  at  games  of  draughts,  made  offerings 
to  the  gods,  and  went  out  in  their  boats  upon  the  canals. 
But  the  chief  occupation  was  agriculture,  which  differed 
from  that  of  earth  only  in  that  the  harvest  never  failed, 
and  the  corn  grew  far  more  luxuriantly,  its  stems  sur- 
passing the  height  of  a  man. 

The  P^ields  of  Aalu  were  tilled  to  provide  the  dead  with 
food,  in  so  far  as  their  wants  were  not  met  by  offerings,  and 
by  magic  formulas  made  and  spoken  for  them  on  earth. 
The  possibility  of  being  obliged  to  till  the  ground  in  the 
world  to  come  could  hardly  have  been  a  pleasant  prospect 
to  Egyptians  of  rank  or  wealth  who  had  never  laboured 
upon  earth,  and  so  they  tried  to  find  means  of  averting 
this  necessity.  The  earliest  expedient  seems  to  have  been 
the  sacrifice  of  human  beings  at  the  tomb,  in  order  to  send 
them  after  the  deceased  as  servants  of  his  to  all  eternity. 
Afterwards  the  idea  was  to  secure  the  immortality  of  those 
who  had  been  a  man's  servants  upon  earth  ;  their  bodies 
were  embalmed,  their  statues  were  placed  in  his  tomb, 
prayers    were  transcribed  for  them,  and  in    gratitude  for 


USHEBTIU — FUNERARY   FURNITURE.  255 

all  this  the  servants  were  expected  to  work  for  their  lord 
in  the  next  world.  But  in  time  more  humane  influences 
prevailed  ;  it  was  felt  that  death  knew  no  distinction  of 
persons,  and  that  hence  the  poorest  and  humblest  might 
claim  to  lead  a  future  life  free  from  care  and  independent 
of  the  caprices  of  a  master.  So  the  rich  man  could  no 
longer  hope  to  keep  his  servants  after  death,  and  would 
have  lived  haunted  with  the  fear  that  he  might  have  to 
guide  the  plough  himself,  if  a  new  expedient  had  not  been 
devised  for  his  relief  From  the  Xllth  Dynasty  onward 
the  practice  prevailed  of  making  little  mummiform  statu- 
ettes, the  so  called  USHEBTIU,  inscribed  with  a  magic 
formula  by  means  of  which  it  was  hoped  that  they  would 
attain  to  life  in  the  world  to  come,  and  there  by  diligence 
in  labour  testify  their  gratitude  to  him  who  had  evoked 
them  into  being.  Their  labours  began  immediately  after 
his  death,  when  they  were  expected  to  recite  a  lament  for 
him  ;  but  this  they  did  only  at  the  command  of  the  god- 
head. In  order  to  relieve  the  latter  from  the  trouble  of 
giving  the  order,  it  was  set  down  in  writing  and  the 
document  laid  in  the  tomb.^  Afterwards  the  main  task 
of  the  little  figures  was  ploughing  and  reaping,  and  hence 
they  are  represented  as  carrying  hoe  and  basket. 

It  is  to  the  working  of  the  same  idea  which  led  to  the 
use  of  these  statuettes  that  we  must  ascribe  the  presence 
of  the  numerous  articles  of  furniture,  toys,  weapons,  etc., 
found  in  tombs.  With  these  the  dead  could  set  up  house, 
and  thus   escape  the  labour  of  procuring  such  things  for 

1  Maspero,  Rec.  de  Trav.,  ii.,  pp.  13  et  scq. ;  Mem.  de  la 
Miss,  au  Caire,  i.,  pp.  594  et  seq. 


256         THE   OSIRIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

himself  in  his  new  abode.  Provision  was  also  made  for  his 
intellectual  interests  :  papyri  were  buried  with  him  for  the 
entertainment  of  his  Osiris,  containing  tales,  love  songs, 
and  even  rules  for  the  game  of  draughts.^  But  comfortable 
and  pleasant  as  his  life  in  the  Fields  of  Aalu  might  thus 
be  made  to  the  wealthy  Egyptian,  nevertheless  he  devoutly 
trusted  not  to  be  restricted  to  remaining  there  in  his  form 
of  an  Osiris.  By  help  of  magic  formulas  he  expected  to 
be  able  to  visit  at  pleasure  all  his  familiar  earthly  haunts  ; 
to  come  forth  as  a  crocodile,  a  hawk,  a  phoenix,  a  heron, 
a  dove,  a  lotus  flower,  even  as  the  god  Ptah  himself;  or 
to  enter  and  animate  his  mummy,  and  in  this  guise  return 
to  look  upon  the  places  dear  to  him  in  life.  Thus  he 
might  still  remain  in  touch  with  the  life  of  this  world,  to 
which  mankind  has  always  clung  ;  and  since  to  the 
Egyptian  the  life  which  he  had  led  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Nile  seemed  an  ideal  existence,  it  was  on  this  model  that 
he  pictured  for  himself  the  life  of  the  world  to  come. 

On  the  whole,  each  chapter  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
appears  to  be  complete  in  itself.  These  chapters  were 
indeed  modified  in  the  course  of  time,  but  the  alterations 
almost  exclusively  affected  the  wording  rather  than  the 
<:ontents.  The  changes  are  rarely  marked  in  the  texts 
embodying  them,  and  at  most  only  by  the  phrase  "  other- 

•  For  instance,  the  papyri  containing  stories  :  Maspero,  Contes 
^opulaires,  2nd  edition,  Paris,  1889,  and  Petrie,  Egyptian 
Tales,  London,  1895  ;  the  love  songs  of  Papyrus  Harris  500, 
treated  by  Maspero,  Etudes  Egy;ptieniies,  i.,  p.  217,  and  about 
to  be  published  in  Germany  by  W.  Max  MiJLLER  ;  and  the  Games 
Papyri  of  Turin  and  Bulak  discussed  by  Wiedemann,  Actes  du 
Congres  des  Orientalistes  de  Geneve, — all  of  which  were  found  in 
tombs. 


BOOK    OF   THE   DEAD,   CHAPTER   XVH.  257 

wise  said,"  which  is  followed  by  a  variant  taken  from 
another  manuscript  than  that  from  which  the  rest  of  the 
text  is  copied.  One  chapter  only  forms  an  exception  : 
Chapter  XVII.  in  the  Turin  copy  gives  numerous  variants 
apart  from  its  own  text,  ahd  provides  commentaries  to 
a  whole  series  of  passages,  introducing  each  commentary 
by  the  words,  "  What  does  this  mean  ?  "  The  chapter  is 
found  in  the  Middle  Kingdom  substantially  in  the  same 
form  as  in  late  texts,  except  that  the  earlier  versions  are 
more  briefly  expressed.  It  used  to  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  oldest  expositions  of  the  Osirian  doctrine,  but  this 
view  is  refuted  by  closer  investigation.  The  chapter 
really  represents  a  comparatively  late  stage  of  develop- 
ment in  the  Egyptian  religion,  and  was  manufactured 
with  the  definite  purpose  of  advancing  a  syncretic  treat- 
ment of  the  Egyptian  gods  and  creeds.  This  will  best 
be  shown  by  giving  a  translation  of  the  first  section  of  it 
as  found  in  the  oldest  known  version,  that  on  the  coffin 
of  Mentuhetep  at  Berlin,  together  with  the  more  important 
additions  from  the  Turin  copy  as  published  by  Lepsius. 
These  additions  are  here  printed  in  italics  and  preceded 
by  the  letter  T.     The  deceased  says  :  — 

I  AM  TUM,  I  AM  THE  ONLY  One,  T.  in  tlic  primeval 
water  Nfi. 

I  AM  Ra  at  his  first  APPEARING,  T.  at  his 
appearing  at  the  beginning  of  his  dominion  which  he 
exercised.  What  is  that?  Ra  in  his  appearing  at  the 
beginning  of  his  dominion  zvhich  he  exercised  is  the  be- 
ginning of  Ra  who  appears  in  Heracleopolis  magna,  when 
the  god   Nfi    zvas    uplifted;   he    zvas   on   the   staircase   in 

17 


258         THE   OSIRIAN   DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

Herackopolis  magna,  he  destroyed  the  children  of  the  rebels 
on  the  staircase  at  Herackopolis  magna. 

I  AM  THE  Great  God  who  created  himself,  T. 
namely  the  water,  that  is  the  god  Nfi,  the  father  of  the 
gods,  THE  Creator  of  his  Name,  the  Lord  of  the 
Divine  Ennead.  T.  What  does  that  mean?  Rd, 
namely  the  creator  of  his  limbs,  these  gods  arose  who  are 
in  the  train  of  Ed.  NONE  AMONG  THE  GODS  MAY  WARD 
him  off.  T.  What  does  this  mean  ?  Tllm  is  in  his 
sun  disk.  Otherwise  said:  Rd  is  in  his  sun  disk,  wJiich 
rises  on  the  eastern  horizon  of  heaven. 

I  AM  Yesterday,  I  know  To-morrow,  namely 
Osiris.  T.  (after  the  word  "  To-morrow  ")  What  is  that? 
Yesterday  is  Osiris,  To-morrow  is  Rd.  That  day  on  which 
were  destroyed  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  of  All  (Osiris)  and 
on.  wJiich  he  established  his  son  Horus  (as  King).  Other- 
wise said:  That  day  on  which  is  established  the  feast  of 
his  installation  {i.e.  as  Lord  of  the  Underworld),  namely 
the  burial  of  Osiris  by  his  father  Rd. 

There  arose  ■  strife  among  the  gods  when  I 
SPOKE.  (Instead  of  these  words  T.  has  :)  He  (Ra  ?)  7nade 
strife  among  the  gods  when  he  commanded  that  Osiris  should 
be  Lord  of  the  Mountain  of  the  West.  It  IS  THE  WEST 
WHICH  WAS  THE  SCENE  OF  STRIFE.  T.  What  does  that 
mean  ?  The  West  belonged  to  the  spirits  of  the  gods  when 
Jie  decreed  that  Osiris  should  be  Lord  of  the  Mountain  of 
the  West.  Otherwise  said:  The  West  marks  the  boiindary 
to  which  Rd  causes  each  god  to  attain.  Behold!  he  {i.e. 
that  god)fighteth  because  of  them  {i.e.  the  various  dead  gods 
would  not  permit  that  Osiris  should  be  King  of  the  West, 


BOOK  OF  THE  DEAD,  CHAPTER  XVH.       259 

of  which  they  considered  themselves  to  be  the  lords,  and 
therefore  they  fought  against  him). 

I  KNOW  THE  NAMES  OF  THIS  GREAT  GOD  WHICH  IS 
IN  IT  (the  Underworld).  T.  What  does  that  mean? 
Osiris.  Variant :  PRAISES  OF  RA  IS  HIS  NAME.  T.  Soul 
of  Ra  is  his  name;  he  begat  himself. 

I  AM  THAT  Great  Phoenix  which  is  in  Heliopolis, 

WHICH  IS  there,  T.  /  am  the  ORDERING  (?)  OF  ALL 
THAT  IS  AND  EXISTS.  WHAT  DOES  THAT  MEAN  ?  T.  It 
is  the  Phoenix.  OsiRIS,  T.  which  is  in  Heliopolis.  It  IS 
T.  tJie  Ordering  (?)  of  that  WHAT  IS  AND  EXISTS,  T.  his 
body.  Variant :  ETERNITY  AND  UNENDING  Time. 
T.  Eternity  is  the  day,  Unending  Time  is  the  night. 

I  AM  MiN  AT  HIS  APPEARING  ;  THERE  ARE  GIVEN 
UNTO  ME  HIS  TWO  FEATHERS  ON  MY  HEAD.  WHAT  DOES 
THAT  MEAN  ?  HiS  TWO  FEATHERS  ARE  THOSE  OF  HORUS, 
THE  AVENGER  OF  HIS  FATHER.  (T.  after  "  What  does 
that  mean  ? "  has  :)  Min  is  Horns,  the  avenger  of  his 
father,  Osiris ;  they  are  his  manifestations,  his  birth. 
They  are  his  two  feathers.  T.  On  his  head  the 
Coming  of  Isis  and  Nephthys  who  are  placed  behind  J  dm, 
that  they  may  be  the  two  Mourning  Sisters.  Behold,  they 
stand  on  his  head.  Variant:  THE  TWO  Uraei,  T.  the 
Very  Great,  WHO  ARE  AT  THE  FOREHEAD  OF  his  FATHER 
TUM.  T.  Variant :  His  two  eyes  {i.e.  Sun  and  Moon)  are 
the  two  feathers  on  his  head. 

I    AM    IN     MY    LAND,    I     HAVE   COME   FROM    MY    CITY. 

What  does  that  mean  ?    [From]  the  Sun  Mountain 

OF  MY  FATHER  TUM. 

So   the  text   goes   on.     The  deceased '  declares  himself 


260         THE   OSIRIAN    DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY. 

to  be  one  with  each  and  all  of  the  gods,  thus  postulating 
a  general  equation  of  deities  of  which  pantheism  would 
have  been  the  logical  outcome.  This,  however,  never  did 
result,  for  the  Egyptian  could  not  bring  himself  to  sacrifice 
the  distinct  individualities  of  his  deities,  notwithstanding 
that  he  regarded  them  all  as  identical.  Chapter  XVII. 
held  its  place  in  spite  of  all  its  doctrinal  deviations 
from  the  belief  in  anthropomorphic  and  individual  deities 
which  otherwise  characterizes  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  and 
in  spite  of  the  contradiction  between  its  fundamental 
theory,  that  the  dead  are  merged  in  the  gods  and  in  the 
Universal  Whole,  with  the  leading  doctrine  of  the  rest  of 
the  work,  which  taught  that  the  immortal  life  of  man  after 
death  in  all  things  but  duration  resembled  his  life  on 
earth. 


CHAPTER   X. 

MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

IN  Egypt  all  was  ruled  by  the  godhead :  not  that  there 
was  any  one  supreme  deity  ;  to  each  god  of  the 
Pantheon  his  own  sphere  was  assigned,  and  nomes,  cities, 
temples,  all  were  dedicated  to  specific  deities,  though 
not  altogether  to  the  exclusion  of  other  divinities.  Some 
of  the  gods  were  also  limited  as  to  the  times  during  which 
their  functions  were  exercised.  Each  month  was  pre- 
sided over  by  a  certain  deity,  Thoth,  for  instance,  being 
the  god  of  the  month  Thoth,  Hathor  the  goddess  of 
Athyr,  and  Khunsu  the  god  of  Pakhons,  in  certain  cases 
at  any  rate  the  months  being  named  after  the  gods. 
Late  texts  represent  every  day  of  the  month  as  dedicated 
to  a  certain  deity— the  first  to  Thoth,  the  second  to 
Horus  the  Avenger  of  his  Father,  the  third  to  Osiris,  the 
fourth  to  seventh  to  the  four  funerary  genii,  etc.,  the  five 
epagomenal  days  being  generally  regarded  as  belonging 
to  the  five  chief  gods  of  the  Osirian  cycle,  who  were 
supposed  to  have  been  born  on  these  days.  In  Ptolemaic 
times  a  day  would  sometimes  be  named  after  the  reigning 
sovereign  instead  of  after  its  god  ;  thus  the  30th  Mesori, 
which  was  the  birthday  of  Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  and  the 
261 


262  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

17th  Mekhir,  which  was  the  date  of  his  accession,  were 
both  called  after  him.  This  division  of  time  among  divine 
beings  was  also  carried  out  into  still  greater  detail,  and 
the  hours  of  day  and  night  were  severally  ruled  by 
separate  goddesses — not  indeed  those  of  the  great  cycles, 
but  beings  created  to  this  end  only. 

Besides  the  gods  of  time  in  its  divisions  there  were 
also  gods  of  the  heavenly  bodies  which  regulated  these 
divisions — of  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  planets,  certain  of 
the  fixed  stars,  and  the  constellations.  All  alike  were 
supposed  to  have  power  over  events  which  took  place 
in  the  periods  subject  to  their  control,  and  to  determine 
the  fates  of  those  born  under  their  rule.  Their  powers, 
however,  were  not  arbitrary,  but  exercised  rather  in 
accordance  with  laws  of  their  own  beings,  and  fates  could 
be  predicted  by  one  to  whom  these  laws  were  known. 
Hence  arose  the  idea  of  horoscopes,  calculations  of  which 
we  find  mention  in  Egyptian  writings  ;  and  in  late  papyri 
we  have  "  spheres,"  that  is,  tables  by  means  of  which  the 
fate  of  a  man  could  be  calculated  from  certain  data,  such 
as  the  hour  of  his  birth,  and  the  like.  From  the  Egyptians 
and  the  Chaldeans,  who  also  held  similar  ideas,  these 
practices  were  passed  on  to  the  Greeks,  and  from  them 
to  the  learned  men  of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  and  in  their 
last  outcome — far  removed  indeed  from  their  original 
religious  nature — they  still  play  a  great  part  in  modern 
books  of  prophecy.  It  was  not  always  necessary  to  make 
use  of  "  spheres  "  and  calculations  to  look  into  the  future  ; 
this  could  be  done  more  readily  by  consulting  calendars 
in    which    it   was  stated    under  each  day  whether   it  was 


AUSPICIOUS   AND   INAUSPICIOUS   DAYS.  263 

auspicious  or  inauspicious,  or  both,  what  should  be  done 
or  left  undone  on  it,  what  would  be  the  fate  of  those  born 
on  that  day,  and  other  information  of  a  similar  nature. 
These  statements  were  founded  on  the  belief  that  on  a 
given  day  some  mythological  event  had  taken  place 
imparting  a  certain  significance  to  the  recurrence  of  the 
date  for  all  time  to  come.  In  a  XlXth  Dynasty  papyrus 
known  as  Sallier  Papyrus  IV.  ^  we  have  a  specimen  of  one 
of  these  calendars  for  several  months  of  the  year,  and  from 
this  the  following  extracts  are  given  :— 

4TH  Paophi  :  Inauspicious,  auspicious,  auspicious  {i e 
varying  in  influence).  In  no  wise  go  forth  from  thine 
house  on  this  day.  He  who  is  born  on  this  day  will  die 
by  the  plague. 

5TH  Paophi  :  Inauspicious,  inauspicious,  inauspicious 
In  no  wise  go  out  of  thine  house  on  this  day  ;  approach  not 
a  woman.  On  this  day  men  shall  make  offerings  to  the 
gods.  The  majesty  of  the  god  Ment  was  content  on  this 
day.  He  who  is  born  on  this  day  shall  die  by  love- 
making. 

6th  Paophi:  Auspicious,  auspicious,  auspicious.  Day 
of  rejoicing  for  Ra  in  heaven.  The  gods  are  in  peace  before 
the  god  Ra;  the  Ennead  of  the  gods  completes  the 
ceremonies  before  [Ra].  He  who  is  born  on  this  day 
will  die  drunken. 

9TH  Paophi  :  Auspicious,  auspicious,  auspicious.  The 
gods  rejoice,  men  are  in  exultation,  the  enemy  of  Ra  is 

'  ^^^;^^^\^^^\r.  Select  PapyrUf  the  British  Museum,  I,  pis.  144- 
168  ;  discussed  by  Chabas.  Le  Calendrier  des  Jorcrs  Pastes  et 
NcfastesdeVAnneeEgy:Ptienne,  Chalon,  1870. 


264  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

overthrown.  He  who  is  born  on  this  day  dies  of  the 
feebleness  of  old  age. 

22ND  PaoPHI  :  Inauspicious,  inauspicious,  inauspicious. 
Bathe  in  no  water  on  this  day.  He  who  goes  in  a  boat 
on  the  river  on  this  day  will  be  torn  in  pieces  by  the 
tongue  of  the  crocodile. 

29TH  Paophi  :  Auspicious,  auspicious,  auspicious.  He 
who  is  born  on  this  day  will  die  honoured  of  his  fellow- 
citizens. 

17TH  Athyr  :  Inauspicious,  inauspicious,  inauspicious. 
Arrival  of  the  superior  and  inferior  Great  Ones  in  Abydos, 
of  Those  who  shed  many  tears.  Great  lamentations  of 
Isis  and  Nephthys  for  their  brother  Unnefer  (Osiris, 
who,  according  to  Plutarch,  was  murdered  on  the  17th 
Athyr)  in  Sais,  a  lament  which  may  be  heard  even  to 
Abydos. 

lOTH  Khoiak  :  Auspicious,  auspicious,  auspicious.  He 
who  is  born  on  this  day  dies  bread  in  hand,  beer  in  mouth, 
his  eyes  looking  upon  food. 

13TH  Mekhir  :  Ifiauspicious,  inauspicious,  inauspicious. 
In  no  wise  go  forth  on  this  day.  It  is  the  day  on  which 
the  eye  of  Sekhet  was  terrible  and  the  fields  were  filled 
with  devastation.^     Go  not  forth  at  sunset  on  this  day. 

Similar  prognostications  were  common  down  to  the 
end  of  Egyptian  history,  and  testify  to  the  wide  difTusion 
of  the  ideas  on  which  they  were  based.  Thus  Cicero 
asserts  that  he  was  born  when  the  Dogstar  was  in  the 
ascendant,  and  that  he  was  therefore  certain  to  be  drowned 

'  Evidently  an  allusion  to  the  Legend  of  the  Destruction  of 
Mankind  ;  see  pp.  58  et  seq. 


PROGNOSTICATION— DREAMS.  265 

at  sea ;  and  Pliny  states  that  whoever  rubs  himself  with 
the  juice  of  the  plant  called  mouse-ear  will  not  suffer  from 
bloodshot  eyes  all  the  year. 

Many  other  races  have  held  similar  ideas,  and  believed 
that  whatever  natural  phenomenon  had  followed  on  a 
supernatural  event  the  recurrence  of  the  one  would  always 
bring  about  the  recurrence  of  the  other,  and  in  order  to 
facilitate  prophecies  based  on  this  assumption,  lists  of 
marvellous  occurrences  were  made.  Such  lists  have  never 
yet  been  found  in  the  Nile  Valley,  but  Manetho,  whose 
views  were  fundamentally  Egyptian,  repeatedly  makes 
mention  of  marvels  such  as  the  Nile  flowing  with  honey, 
the  birth  of  an  eight-legged  lamb,  and  the  like,  and  hence 
we  may  feel  certain  that  the  Egyptians  also  believed 
in  the  peculiar  significance  of  supernatural  or  unusual 
phenomena. 

But  if  all  lots  were  thus  decreed  they  were  not  always 
and  altogether  inevitable.  In  the  first  place  the  gods 
might  interfere  to  spare  those  whom  they  delighted  to 
honour  the  melancholy  fate  before  them,  or  to  bring  about 
the  overthrow  of  their  enemies.  And  by  the  help  of 
magic  man  also  could  control  fate  ;  by  the  same  means 
too  he  not  only  obtained  power  over  his  fellow  men,  but 
also  over  the  dead,  and  even  over  the  gods  themselves,  no 
matter  how  high  their  rank.  One  chief  use  of  magic  was 
to  send  or  procure  dreams. 

Among  all  peoples  dreams  have  played  a  great  part, 
their  kaleidoscopic  pictures  seeming  to  be  real  things 
and  the  words  apprehended  in  them  to  have  been  really 
spoken.     In  the  case  of  so  pious  a  people  as  the  Egyptian, 


266  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

whose  chief  interest  throughout  Hfe  was  the  worship  of  the 
gods,  it  was  only  natural  that  in  dreams  as  when  awake 
they  should  cling  to  communion  with  the  higher  powers, 
and  believe  themselves  to  enter  into  personal  communi- 
cation with  their  deities  and  thus  to  receive  counsel  and 
reply  in  difficulty. 

i\ccording  to  the  opinion  of  the  Egyptians,  god 
sent  dreams  might  come  to  a  man  anywhere.  Thus 
Thothmosis  IV.  was  taking  his  siesta  out  hunting  when 
Ra  Harmakhis  appeared  to  him  and  commanded  him  to 
clear  away  the  sand  from  the  Great  Sphinx,  in  the  shadow 
of  which  he  was  sleeping.  We  have  also  a  record  later 
by  some  thousand  years  of  how  a  dream  opportunely 
commanded  King  Nut  Amen  of  Ethiopia  to  march  into 
Egypt.  But  to  make  sure  of  a  prophetic  dream  it  was 
safer  to  sleep  within  a  temple  known  to  be  the  seat  of 
an  oracle,  such  as  that  of  Serapis  at  Memphis.  This 
oracle  is  often  mentioned  in  Ptolemaic  writings,  and  there 
are  still  in  existence  notes  made  by  the  anchorites  who 
dwelt  there  of  the  {dreams  vouchsafed  to  them.^  As  a 
rule  these  dreams  could  be  interpreted  by  the  dreamers, 
but  sometimes  the  meaning  was  dark  and  recourse  was 
had  to  the  professional  interpreters  of  whom  we  find 
mention  in  Genesis  xli.  8.  Their  calling  lasted  late  in 
Egyptian  history,  and  a  Greek  stela  refers  to  one  of 
these  officials  as  still  established  in  the  Serapeum  at 
Memphis.  The  belief  in  prophetic  dreams,  and  in  dreams 
by  which  cures  for  diseases  were  made  known,  was  not 
confined  to  Eg}'pt ;  it  prevailed,  for  instance,  in  connexion 
'  Cf.  Wiedemann,  Hcrodoi's  Zweites  Buck,  p.  344. 


DREAMS.  267 

with  the  temple  of  Asklepios  at  Epidaurus ;  but  Egypt 
was  its  main  centre,  and  even  towards  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century  a.d.  the  poet  Claudian  speaks  of  oracular 
dreams  as  "  Egyptian."  ^ 

The  dreams  were  sent  by  the  gods  at  their  pleasure, 
and  as  a  general  thing  men  simply  besought  the  gods 
for  them.  If  this  proved  of  no  avail  recourse  might  be 
had  to  magic,  and  the  gods  could  be  compelled  to  send 
not  only  such  dreams  as  they  might  approve  of  but 
certain  dreams  specified  by  the  applicant.  Many  of  the 
directions  for  thus  coercing  them  have  come  down  to  us, 
and  the  following  formula  found  in  a  Greek  Gnostic 
Papyrus  from  the  Leyden  Museum  is  based  throughout 
on  Egyptian  ideas,  notwithstanding  the  comparative 
lateness  of  its  date.^ 

"Nostrum    of    Agathokles    for    producing 
Dreams. 

"  Take  a  cat,  black  all  over,  and  which  has  been  killed  ; 
prepare  a  writing  tablet,  and  write  the  following  with  a 
solution  of  myrrh,  and  the  dream  which  thou  desirest  to 
be  sent,  and  put  it  in  the  mouth  of  the  cat.  [The  text 
to  be  transcribed  runs  :]  Keimi,  keimi,  I  am  the  Great 
One  in  whose  mouth  rests  Mommom,  Thoth,  Nanumbre, 
Karikha,  Kenyro,  Paarmiathon,  the  sacred  lau  iee  ieu  aeoi 
who  is  above  the  heaven,  Amekheumeu,  Nennana,  Sennana, 

'  Claudian,  Entr.,  i.  312. 

2  Papyri  Graeci  Musei  Lugduni-Bafavi,  edited  by  Leemans, 
ii.,  p.  16  :  cf.  DiETERlCH,  Papyrus  Magica,  Leipzig,  1888,  p.  80J 
(from  Fleckeisen's  Jahrbikherfiir  klassische  Philologie). 


268  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

Ablanathanalba,  Akramm  khamaria  brasiua  lampsor 
eieeieiei  aoeeo  theuris  6.  .  .  .  Put  thyself  in  connexion 
with  N.  N.  in  this  matter  (as  to  the  substance  of  the 
dream  named).  But  if  it  is  (?)  necessary,  then  secure 
(bring?)  for  me  N.  N.  hither  by  thy  power;  lord  of  the 
whole  world,  fiery  god,  put  thyself  in  connexion  with 
N.  N.  Tharthar  thamara  thatha  mommom  thanabotha 
apranu  bamalea  khr[a]thna  basuleth  rombru  tharael 
albana  brokhrex  abranazukhel !  Hear  me,  for  I  shall 
speak  the  great  name,  Thoth  !  whom  each  god  honours 
and  each  demon  fears,  by  whose  command  every  messenger 
performs  his  mission.  Thy  name  answers  to  the  seven 
(vowels)  a,  e,  e,  i,  o,  y,  6,  iaudeeao  ouee  oia.  I  named  thy 
glorious  name,  the  name  for  all  needs.  Put  thyself  in 
connexion  with  N.  N.,  ?Iidden  One,  God,  with  respect  to 
this  name,  which  Apollobex  also  used." 

As  by  means  of  this  formula  the  magician  could  compel 
the  god  to  send  a  certain  dream  to  a  certain  person,  in 
the  same  way  he  could  cause  the  sending  of  a  prophetic 
dream,  or  obtain  for, himself  the  answer  to  any  stated 
question  :  some  slight  variation  of  formula  made  all  the 
difference,  but  all  the  formulas  were  very  much  alike. 
They  are  preceded  by  a  brief  description  of  the  preliminary 
proceedings,  and  special  directions  are  given  as  to  the 
material  upon  which  the  words  are  to  be  written,  whether 
the  manuscript  is  to  be  placed  in  any  particular  spot  or 
destroyed,  or  whether  a  simple  repetition  of  the  words  will 
suffice.  Then  follows  the  formula  itself,  which,  apart  from 
prescribing  the  desired  action  of  the  divinity,  contains  little 
beyond  invocations.    An  observation  is  generally  appended 


FORMULAS    OF   INVOCATION.  269 

to  the  effect  that  the  formula  had  once  been  employed 
successfully  by  a  god,  as  in  the  example  above  given,  where 
the  god  in  question  is  named  Apollobex.  "  Apollobex " 
is  compounded  of  the  Greek  "  Apollo,"  corresponding  to 
the  Egyptian  solar  Horus,  and  of  the  syllable  "  bex," 
probably  derived  from  the  Egyptian  bak,  "  a  hawk." 
Hence  the  name  denotes  Horus  the  hawk,  that  is  the  son 
of  Isis  in  the  form  of  a  sparrow  hawk,  who  appears  in 
other  texts  also  as  a  god  well  versed  in  magic.  In  the 
invocation  proper  there  are  few  genuine  divine  names,  such 
as  the  name  Thoth  in  the  above  ;  generally  it  is  a  string 
of  syllables  apparently  utterly  destitute  of  meaning,  but 
which  sounded  mysterious  and  incomprehensible  and  was 
on  that  account  credited  with  all  the  greater  significance. 
Like  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  the  Gnostics  attached  much 
value  to  such  combinations,  and  they  have  always  been 
in  favour  with  magicians.  The  succession  of  syllables  was 
supposed  to  convey  the  hidden  name  of  a  god,  and  after 
they  had  been  pronounced  the  god  was  bound  to  do  the 
will  of  the  magician  who  had  spoken  them.  It  was  long 
believed  that  the  knowledge  of  these  essential  names  lay 
chiefly  with  the  Egyptians,  and  Synesius  of  Gyrene,  who 
lived  about  400  A.D.,  remarks  in  one  of  his  writings  ^ 
composed  while  he  was  still  a  heathen,  that  he  had  heard 
that  "the  Egyptians  knew  how  to  employ  a  certain  method 
against  the  gods  and  a  certain  sorcery,  so  that  as  often 
as  they  pleased  they  mumbled  a  few  incomprehensible 
words,  and  so  drew  to  themselves  all  that  was  divine, 
which  is  apt  to  follow  certain  drawings."  And  because 
'  Calvitiae  encomion,  cap.  10. 


270  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

of  this  frequent  intercourse  with  their  gods  their  outward 
forms  also  were  famiHar  to  the  Egyptians. 

Nonsensical  as  these  invocations  now  sound,  they  were 
not  originally  without  meaning  ;  for  the  most  part  they 
consisted  of  versions  of  the  names  and  titles  of  gods  of 
foreign  nations.  Writers  on  ancient  magic,  as  for  instance 
Origen,  state  emphatically  that  it  was  considered  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  invoke  a  god  by  his  right  name. 
Thus  the  word  "  Sabaoth "  borrowed  from  the  Jewish 
sacred  writings  was  thought  to  be  of  exceptional  efficacy  ; 
but  if  *'  Lord  of  Power "  or  "  Lord  of  Hosts  "  was  sub- 
stituted for  it,  the  power  of  the  spell  was  gone.  This  lay, 
therefore,  not  in  the  sense  of  the  words,  but  in  their  sound, 
and  any  attempt  at  translating  them  not  only  made  the 
invocation  inoperative,  but  was  attended  with  the  gravest 
peril. ;  for,  in  Egypt  as  elsewhere,  the  demons  were  believed 
to  obey  the  commands  of  the  sorcerer  only  on  compulsion, 
and  always  to  be  on  the  watch  for  any  opportunity  which 
might  place  it  in  their  power  to  destroy  him.  Most  of  this 
apparent  gibberish,  therefore,  originally  meant  something, 
although  this  is  difficult  to  prove  in  detail.  However 
careful  the  attempt  to  reproduce  foreign  words,  it  was 
never  quite  successful,  and  as  time  went  on  the  right 
pronunciation  was  forgotten  more  and  more,  for  the  oral 
tradition  of  unintelligible  sounds  never  could  be  accurate, 
and  the  transcription  of  magical  texts  seems  to  have  been 
singularly  careless.  As  an  instance  of  this  debasement  we 
may  take  the  word  "  Paarmiathon."  This  is  apparently 
Egyptian,  and  a  corruption  of  pa  Her  in  dtM,  "  the  Horus 
in  the  marsh,"  a  common  designation  of  Horus  the  son  of 


MEDICINE.  271 

Isis,  who  had  dwelt  during  his  youth  in  the  marshes  of 
the  Delta/ 

Magic  played  an  extensive  part  in  Egyptian  medicine. 
The  Egyptians  were  not  great  physicians  ;  their  methods 
were  purely  empirical  and  their  remedies  of  very  doubtful 
value,  but  the  riskiness  of  their  practice  arose  chiefly  from 
their  utter  inability  to  diagnose  because  of  their  ignorance 
of  anatomy.  That  the  popular  respect  for  the  human 
body  was  great  we  may  gather  from  the  fact  that  the 
Paraskhistai  who  opened  the  body  for  embalmment  were 
persecuted  and  stoned  as  having  committed  a  sinful 
although  necessary  deed.  The  prescribed  operations  in 
preparing  a  body  for  embalmment  were  never  departed 
from,  and  taught  but  little  anatomy,  so  that  until  Greek 
times  the  Egyptians  had  only  the  most  imperfect  and 
inaccurate  ideas  of  the  human  organism.  They  under- 
stood nothing  about  most  internal  diseases,  and  especially 
nothing  about  diseases  of  the  brain,  never  suspecting  them 
to  be  the  result  of  organic  changes,  but  assuming  them 
to  be  caused  by  demons  who  had  entered  into  the  sick. 
Under  these  circumstances  medicines  might  be  used  to 
cause  the  disappearance  of  symptoms,  but  the  cure  was 
the  expulsion  of  the  demon.  Hence  the  Egyptian 
physician  must  also  practise  magic. 

According  to  late  accounts,  his  functions  were  com- 
paratively simple,  for  the  human  body  had  been  divided 
into  thirty-six  parts,  each  presided  over  by  a  certain 
demon,  and  it  sufficed  to  invoke  the  demon  of  the  part 
affected  in  order  to  bring  about  its  cure — a  view  of  matters 
'  See  pp.  210,  214. 


272  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

fundamentally  Egyptian.  In  the  Book  of  the  Dead  ^  we 
find  that  different  divinities  were  responsible  for  the  well- 
being  of  the  bodies  of  the  blessed  ;  thus  Nu  had  charge  of 
the  hair,  Ra  of  the  face,  Hathor  of  the  eyes,  Apuat  of  the 
ears,  Anubis  of  the  lips,  while  Thoth  was  guardian  of  all 
parts  of  the  body  together.  This  doctrine  was  subse- 
quently applied  to  the  living  body,  with  the  difference  that 
for  the  great  gods  named  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead  there 
were  substituted  as  gods  of  healing  the  presiding  deities 
of  the  thirty-six  decani,  the  thirty-six  divisions  of  the 
Egyptian  zodiac,  as  we  learn  from  the  names  given  to 
them  by  Celsus  and  preserved  by  Origen."  In  earlier 
times  it  was  not  so  easy  to  determine  which  god  was  to 
be  invoked,  for  the  selection  depended  not  only  on  the 
part  affected  but  also  on  the  illness  and  symptoms  and 
remedies  to  be  used,  etc. 

Several  Egyptian  medical  papyri  which  have  come  down 
to  us  contain  formulas  to  be  spoken  against  the  demons 
of  disease  as  well  as  prescriptions  for  the  remedies  to  be 
used  in  specified  cases  of  illness.  In  papyri  of  older  date 
these  conjurations  are  comparatively  rare,  but  the  further 
the  art  of  medicine  advanced,  or  rather  receded,  the  more 
numerous  they  became.  Take,  for  example,  the  following 
formula  to  be  spoken  while  preparing  certain  drugs  ;  it 
dates  from  about  the  year  1700  B.C.  and  is  from  a  medical 
papyrus  in  the  Leipzig  collection."'  "  May  Isis  deliver, 
deliver  ;  Horus  was  delivered  by  Isis  from  all  ill  that  was 
inflicted  upon  him  by  his  brother  Set  when  he  slew  his 

'  See  Chapter  XLII.  ^  Pap.  Ebers,  i.  12  ct  secj. 

^  Coti.  Celstiiii,  viii.  58. 


MEDICINE — CONJURATION.  2/3 

father  Osiris.  O  I  sis,  mistress  of  sorceries,  deliver  me,  set 
me  free  from  all  bad,  evil,  red  things,^  from  the  power 
of  illness  coming  from  god  or  goddess,  from  death  male 
and  female,  from  plague  male  and  female  that  taketh 
hold  upon  me,  even  as  thou  didst  set  free,  even  as  thou 
didst  deliver  thy  son  Horus  !  [Do  this]  because  I  enter 
into  the  fire  and  rise  forth  from  the  water,  and  fall  not  into 
the  snare  on  that  day  (i.e.  because  I  possess  magic  power), 
etc.  Oh  save  me  from  the  power  of  all  bad,  evil,  red  things, 
from  the  power  of  illness  coming  from  god  or  goddess, 
from  death  male  and  female  ! " 

The  above  formula  might  be  used  at  the  preparation  of 
any  drug ;  others  were  intended  for  use  only  in  certain 
illnesses.  Thus,  for  inflammations  there  was  a  remedy 
compounded  with  the  milk  of  a  woman  who  had  borne  a 
man  child,  and  over  this  was  to  be  said :  ^  "  O  my  son 
Horus  !  it  burns  on  the  hills ;  no  water  is  there,  no  helper 
is  there  ;  bring  water  over  the  flood  {i.e.  the  water  of  the 
inundation)  to  put  out  the  fire."  These  words  refer  to  the 
myth  of  a  universal  conflagration,  to  which  the  texts  often, 
but  only  incidentally,  refer,  and  of  which  even  Plato  had 
heard  ;  ^  and  as  Horus  had  on  that  occasion  extinguished  the 
flames,  so  he  was  to  subdue  the  burning  of  the  inflammation. 

It  might  even  be  the  proper  thing  to  threaten  a  god  who 
refused  his  aid.     Thus,  in  one  conjuration,*  a 


woman   m 


1  Red  being  the  colour  of  Set,  red  things  were  equivalent  to  evil 
things. 

2  Fa^.  Ebers,  pi.  Ixix.,  1.  3,  et  seq. 

3  Plato,  Timaeus,  22. 

"  Magical  papyrus,  discussed  by  Pleyte,  Etudes  Egypt.,  pp.  176 
et  seq. 


274  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

labour  declares  herself  to  be  Isis,  and  summons  the  gods 
to  her  help.  Should  these  refuse  to  come,  "Then  shall 
ye  be  destroyed,  ye  nine  gods  ;  the  heaven  shall  no  longer 
exist,  the  earth  shall  no  longer  exist,  the  five  days  over  and 
above  the  year  shall  cease  to  be,  offerings  shall  no  more 
be  made  to  the  gods,  the  lords  of  Heliopolis.  The  firma- 
ment of  the  South  shall  fall,  and  disaster  shall  break  forth 
from  the  sky  of  the  North.  Lamentations  shall  resound 
from  the  graves,  the  midday  sun  shall  no  longer  shine, 
the  Nile  shall  not  bestow  its  waters  of  inundation  at  the 
appointed  time."  Such  formulas  were  used  until  Roman 
times,  and  philosophers,  as  for  instance  Porphyry,^  still 
found  occasion  to  mock  at  the  presumption  of  magicians 
who  threatened  to  destroy  the  heavens  and  the  earth  if 
their  will  was  not  accomplished. 

It  was  not  always  enough  to  speak  the  formulas  once  ; 
even  their  repeated  recitation  might  not  be  successful, 
and  in  that  case  recourse  must  be  had  to  other  ex- 
pedients :  secret  passes  were  made,  various  rites  were 
performed,  the  formulas  were  written  upon  papyrus,  which 
the  sick  person  had  to  swallow,  etc.,  etc.  But  amulets  were 
in  general  found  to  be  most  efficacious,  and  the  personal 
intervention  of  a  god  called  up,  if  necessary,  by  prayers  or 
sorcery.  In  an  inscription  originally  written  in  honour  of 
the  god  Khunsu  of  Thebes,  about  looo  B.C.,  we  have  a  story 
which  shows  how  such  a  cure  by  means  of  the  divine  touch 
might  be  brought  about ;  the  following  is  an  abstract  of  it.- 

•  In  EUSEBIUS,  Praep.  ev.,  v.  lo. 

2  Ledrain,  Mon.  Egyft.  de  la  Bibl.  Nat.,  pis.  36-44  :  cf.  DE 
Rouge,  Etude  sur  une  Stele  Egypt.,  in  the  your7ial  Asiat.,  1856-8. 


THE   POSSESSED  PRINCESS   OF   BEKHTEN. 


275 


FIG.    70. — SHRINES    OF    THE    TWO    KHUNSUS,    THE    KING    BETWEEN    THEM. 
(PRISSE,    "monuments,"    PL.    XXIV.) 

From  the  Bekhten  Stela. 

Once  an  Egyptian  king  went  to  Asia  to  take  tribute. 
The  prince  of  Bekhten  brought  him  his  daughter  as  a 
gift,  and  the  king  loved  her  and  raised  her  to  be  his  wife. 
Long  years  after,  when  the  king  of  Egypt  had  returned 
and  was  holding  a  feast  in  Thebes,  there  came  thither  a 
messenger  from  Bekhten,  who  said  to  him  :  "  I  come  to 
thee,  O  prince,  my  lord,  because  of  Bentresht,  who  is  thy 
sister  in  law  through  the  royal  wife.  A  plague  hath  entered 
into  her  members.  Let  thy  majesty  send  a  learned  scribe 
that  he  may  see  her."  The  king  despatched  the  very 
learned  royal  scribe  Thothemheb  ;  but  when  he  came  to 
Bekhten  he  found  Bentresht  in  the  condition  of  one 
possessed  by  a  demon,  and  that  he  himself  was  not 
strong  enough  to  oppose  the  demon.  Then  the  prince  of 
Bekhten  sent  again  unto  Pharaoh  and  said :  "  O  prince, 
my  lord !  let  a  god  come  (to  fight  the  demon)."  And 
Pharaoh  went  to  Khunsu  the  Fair-resting  One  in  Thebes, 
and  said  :  "  O  thou  my  beauteous  lord !  again  I  come 
unto  thee  because  of  the  daughter  of  the  prince  of 
Bekhten."  Then  Khunsu  the  Fair-resting  One  in  Thebes 
was   brought   to    Khunsu    the  Carrier   out   of  Plans,   the 


276  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

great  god  who  overcomes  the  wicked  {i.e.  the  form  of 
Khunsu  known  as  the  "  Fair-resting  One  in  Thebes," 
which  always  remained  in  the  temple  and  which  devised 
plans,  was  taken  to  the  other  form  of  the  god  which  was 
known  as  the  "  Carrier  out  of  Plans,"  and  which  executed 
the  designs  of  the  former).  The  king  spoke  before  Khunsu 
the  Fair-resting  One  :  "  My  beauteous  lord,  oh  turn  thy  face 
hither  to  Khunsu  the  Carrier  out  of  Plans  that  he  may  go 
to  Bekhten  !  "  Then  the  god  nodded  twice.  And  the  king 
said :  "  Let  thy  talisman  be  with  him  when  I  cause  him 
to  go  to  Bekhten  to  save  the  daughter  of  the  prince  of 
Bekhten."  Then  Khunsu  the  Fair-resting  One  nodded 
twice.  He  invested  Khunsu  the  Carrier  out  of  Plans  four 
times  with  his  amulet. 

So  Pharaoh  sent  the  god  to  Bekhten,  where  he  was 
received  in  state.  Then  the  god  went  to  the  place  where 
Bentresht  was  ;  he  invested  with  his  amulet  the  daughter 
of  the  prince  of  Bekhten,  and  immediately  she  was  well. 
But  the  demon  that  had  been  in  her  said  before  Khunsu 
the  Carrier  out  of  .Plans  :  "  Approach  in  peace,  thou  great 
god,  overthrower  of  the  wicked  ;  Bekhten  is  thy  city,  its 
inhabitants  are  thy  slaves,  I  myself  am  thy  servant !  I 
will  go  to  the  place  whence  I  came  that  I  may  satisfy  thy 
heart  in  relation  to  the  matter  on  account  of  which  thou 
art  come  hither.  But  let  thy  Majesty  command  that  a 
feast  shall  be  established  for  me  and  for  the  prince  of 
Bekhten."  Then  the  god  bowed  twice  to  his  priest,  in 
consent,  and  said  :  "  Let  the  prince  of  Bekhten  make  a 
great  offering  to  this  demon."  While  the  god  Khunsu  was 
negotiating  with  the  demon,  the  prince  of  Bekhten   and 


FORMULAS   AGAINST   WILD   BEASTS.  277 

his  soldiers  stood  by  in  great  fear.  The  offering  was 
made,  and  the  demon  went  forth  in  peace  to  the  place 
whither  he  would  go,  at  the  command  of  the  god  Khunsu 
the  Carrier  out  of  Plans. 

The  prince  of  Bekhten    rejoiced   greatly,  and  thought 
withm  himself  that  he  would  do  well  to  keep  in  Bekhten 
the  god  who  had  thus  evinced  his  power,  that  he  mi^^ht 
in  emergency  make  use  of  him  again  ;  and   he  withhdd 
him  from  returning  to  Thebes  for  three  years  and  nine 
months.     But  when  this  time  had  gone  by,  one  day  when 
the  prince  was  resting  on  his  couch  he  saw  the  god  comincr 
forth  from  his  chapel   in  the   form  of  a  golden  sparrow 
hawk,  and  fly  away  through  the   high    heavens  towards 
Kgypt.     On   awakening  he  felt  ill,  and  thereupon  called 
to   him   the   priest   of  the   god,  and   sent  them   back  to 
Thebes  laden  with   rich   presents.     "Now  when    Khunsu 
the  Carrier  out  of  Plans  had    come  into   the   temple   of 
Khunsu  the  Fair-resting  One,  he  gave  unto  him  the  gifts 
which  he  had  received  from   the  prince  of  Bekhten,  and 
kept  back  none  of  them  for  himself." 

Magic  availed  not  only  against  illness,  but  also  against 
accidents  and  perils  from  without,  and  especially  against 
dangerous  animals.  Of  these  there  were  many  in  E^ypt 
and  even  at  the  time  of  the  Xllth  Dynasty  herdsmen  knew 
formulas  for  frightening  away  the  crocodiles  which  lay  in 
wait  in  the  shallows  to  fall  upon  the  cattle.^  The  magical 
papyrus  of  the  Harris  collection,  which  dates  from%he 
New  Kingdom,  also  contains  conjurations  by  means  of 
which  men  could  protect  themselves  from  amphibious 
'  L-  D.,  vi.,  pi.  112,  II.  i^(ietseq. 


2/8  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

animals.  All  that  was  needed  was  to  call  out :  ^  "  I  am 
the  Chosen  One  of  millions,  who  goeth  forth  from  Duat, 
whose  name  is  not  known.  If  my  name  is  spoken  on  the 
bank  of  the  river,  the  river  is  dried  up  ;  if  my  name  is 
spoken  on  the  land,  it  begetteth  fire.  I  am  Shu,  the  image 
of  Ra,  which  hath  its  seat  in  his  eye  {ilza.t,  the  sun  disk). 
When  a  water  monster  openeth  its  mouth,  when  it  moveth 
its  legs,  then  I  cause  the  earth  to  fall  into  the  flood  (?),  the 
South  to  become  the  North,  and  the  earth  to  turn  round." 
Hearing  these  words  the  crocodile  thought  the  speaker 
the  god  whom  he  announced  himself  to  be,  and  speedily 
dived  below.  The  crocodile  in  particular  was  supposed  to 
stand  in  dread  of  the  gods  and  all  belonging  to  them  :  to 
attack,  for  instance,  no  one  who  might  be  in  a  papyrus 
bark  in  the  Delta,  because  Isis  had  once  made  use  of  one 
when  there. 

^  Still  more  fearsome  to  the  Egyptians  than  the  crocodiles 
were  snakes,  from  which  they  were  always  threatened 
with  sudden  death,  and  which  even  in  the  world  to  come 
were  a  continual '  peril.  The  formulas  for  use  against 
them  were  many,  and  a  long  series  are  given  in  pyramid 
texts  of  the  Vlth  Dynasty.  ^  These  were  chiefly  intended 
for  use  in  the  next  world,  but  might  also  be  used  here. 
A  man  must  say  :  "  The  snake  curleth  itself,  it  curleth  itself 
round  the  calf  O  hippopotamus  that  wentest  forth  out 
of  the  nome  of  the  earth,  thou  atest  what  went  forth 
from  thee  !      Snake,  thou   who  descendest,   lie  down,  go 

•  Harris  Magical   Papyrus,   edited    by  Chabas,    Chalon-sur- 
Saone,  i860,  pi.  vii.,  11.  1-4, 

*  See,  e.g..  Pyramid  of  Unas,  11.  300-340. 


"MAA   KHERU"  279 

back  !  The  god  Hen-PE-SEZET  is  in  the  water  ;  the  snake 
is  overthrown,  thou  beholdest  the  god  Ra."  Or  else : 
"  Fall,  body  which  came  forth  from  the  earth  !  Flame 
which  came  forth  from  the  celestial  ocean,  fall !  go  back  !  '^' 
The  second  of  these  formulas  simply  contains  the  conjura- 
tion of  the  snake  to  force  it  to  retreat,  but  the  first  is 
full  of  mythological  allusions  which  we  cannot  understand. 

Formulas  against  all  kinds  of  hurtful  creatures,  such 
as  scorpions  or  hippopotami,  may  be  classed  with  those 
against  crocodiles  and  snakes.  Some  of  them  might  even 
undo  the  hurt  which  had  been  done  ;  thus  we  have  the 
formula  by  means  of  which  Isis  called  her  son  Horus 
back  to  life  after  he  had  been  killed  by  a  scorpion,  and 
instructions  are  appended  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  formula  is  to  be  used  for  a  man  in  like  case/ 

In  the  next  world  a  correct  knowledge  of  magic  words 
and  formulas  was  absolutely  essential.  There  no  door 
would  open  to  him  who  knew  not  its  name  ;  no  demon 
would  allow  the  passage  of  the  dead  who  did  not  call 
upon  him  correctly,  nor  would  any  god  come  to  his 
help  unless  invoked  by  the  right  name  ;  no  food  could 
be  had  so  long  as  the  exactly  prescribed  prayers  were 
not  uttered  with  the  true  intonations.  But  the  dead 
who  knew  these  formulas  and  who  knew  how  to  speak 
them  correctly  at  the  proper  moment,  who  was  mad  kJierfi, 
"  right  speaking,"  might  rest  assured  of  immortality  and 
of  eternal  blessedness.  Hence  there  was  added  to  the 
names  of  the  dead,  and  even  occasionally  to  those  of  living 
persons,  this  epithet,  in  order  to  characterize  them  as 
'  Metternich  Stela  :  cf.  Ae^:  Zeit.,  1879,  pp.  i  et  seq. 


280  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

rightly  prepared  and  perfect  for  entering  into  eternity, 
there  to  have  dominion  over  both  gods  and  men.^  The 
number  of  the  magic  formulas  was  incalculable  ;  still  they 
accumulated  as  the  world  to  come  was  pictured  in  greater 
complication  and  refinement  of  detail,  and  such  was  their 
potency  that  they  inevitably  constrained  the  demons  to 
the  aid  of  those  who  knew  them.  At  the  words,  "  O 
door !  I  know  thy  name,  which  is  so-and-so,"  straightway 
the  door  sprang  open.  So  too  it  was  with  every  divinity  : 
the  secret  name  of  a  god  was  scarcely  uttered  before  he  was 
at  the  disposal  of  the  dead  who  invoked  him,  and  whom  he 
was  bound  to  help  to  the  full  extent  of  his  power  and 
capacity.  The  firm  belief  cherished  by  the  Egyptians  as 
to  the  efficacy  of  formulas  and  magic  in  the  next  world 
prevented  any  doubt  as  to  the  possibility  of  practising 
sorcery  here.  Sorcerers  were  in  demand  on  every  hand, 
and  well  understood  how  to  fortify  the  faith  of  their  clients 
by  the  display  of  conjuring  tricks  :  in  the  Bible  we  have 
an  allusion  to  feats  of  this  kind  performed  before  Pharaoh 
in  opposition  to  Moses  and  Aaron. 

Hitherto  we  have  considered  Egyptian  magic  only  on 
what  we  may  call  its  good  side,  as  being  helpful  to  man  in 
life,  in  sickness,  in  affliction,  and  also  after  death ;  but  far 
greater  was  the  harm  feared  from  it  than  any  pretended 
good  hoped  for.     The  power  of  the  sorcerer  was  prodigious. 

1  Cf.  Maspero,  Etudes  de  Myth.,  i.,  pp.  93  et  scq.  ;  ii.,  pp.  ^-Ji  et 
seq.  Sometimes  it  appears  as  if  the  Egyptians  had  used  the  epithet 
mad  khertl  in  a  more  passive  sense.  Thus  it  is  applied  to  a  person 
who  had  been  declared  by  the  godhead  to  speak  right,  to  be  mad 
kheric,  and  therefore  worthy  of  immortality,  as,  for  instance,  the 
judgment  before  Osiris. 


PERILS   OF   SORCERY.  281 

Thus  in  the  Ptolemaic  Story  of  Setna  ^  two  formulas  are 
mentioned,  and  "  if  a  man  recite  the  first  he  will  enchant 
the  heaven,  the  earth,  the  Underworld,  the  mountains,  and 
the  waters  ;  he  will  know  the  birds  of  the  sky  and  all 
reptiles  ;  he  will  see  the  fishes  of  the  deep,  for  a  divine 
power  will  cause  them  to  come  to  the  surface  of  the  water. 
And  if  a  man  read  the  second  formula,  then,  although 
he  lay  in  the  grave,  he  shall  take  again  the  form  which 
he  had  on  earth ;  he  shall  see  the  Sun  god  rising  in  the 
sky,  and  his  divine  cycle  ;  he  shall  see  the  Moon  god  in 
his  true  form  which  he  takes  at  his  appearing."  It  was 
not  indeed  easy  to  get  possession  of  such  formulas  ;  those 
above  mentioned  lay  in  a  golden  box,  which  was  in  a 
silver  box,  which  was  in  an  ivory  and  ebony  box,  which 
was  in  a  wooden  box,  which  was  in  a  bronze  box,  which 
was  in  an  iron  box.  Round  that  was  coiled  a  deathless 
snake,  and  there  was  a  swarm  of  snakes  and  scorpions 
and  all  manner  of  creeping  things  which  must  be  van- 
quished before  a  man  could  secure  the  formulas  for  his 
own.  But,  as  the  Story  of  Setna  shows,  this  was  not 
considered  an  impossible  thing  to  do  ;  and  if  the  possession 
of  the  formulas  brought  Setna  to  grief,  it  was  not  because 
of  their  intrinsic  nature,  but  because  he  had  been  guilty  of 
wrong  doing,  and  had  thus  put  himself  in  the  power  of 
the  spirits  which  he  thought  to  have  controlled. 

According  to  the  texts,  the  magicians  of  Egypt  were 
guilty  of  turning  their  science  to  the  injury  of  their  fellow 
men.     It  is  related  that  a  man  was  sentenced  to  death  for 

1  For  the  Story  of  Setna  see  Egy;ptian  Tales,  W.  M.  Flinders 
Petrie,  London,  1895. 


282  MAGIC   AND   SORCERY. 

trying  to  harm  Pharaoh  himself  by  means  of  magic,  and  in 
the  papyri  we  have  repeated  instances  of  hurtful  formulas. 
The  sending  of  dreams,  as  described  above,  might  be  the 
means  of  producing  most  unpleasant  effects  ;  but,  worse 
still,  a  woman  at  a  distance  might  be  compelled  by  means 
of  intricate  rites  to  fall  so  desperately  in  love  that  she  no 
longer  ate  or  drank,  no  longer  anointed  herself  or  sat 
down,  and  took  no  thought  for  anything  about  her  until 
she  came  to  the  man  whom  she  loved.  Love  charms  have 
been  familiar  to  many  nations.  Theocritus,  in  his  second 
idyll,  gives  a  highly  poetical  description  of  how  such 
sorcery  was  practised  by  the  Hellenes  in  Alexandrian 
times.  In  Roman  times  it  was  considered  necessary 
solemnly  to  forbid  it.  Paulus  the  jurist  decreed  that  any 
one  guilty  of  having  presented  a  love  philtre  should  be 
sent  to  the  mines  if  he  belonged  to  the  lower  classes,  and 
if  to  the  upper  should  be  banished  to  an  island,  as  a  warn- 
ing to  others  ;  but  if  he  had  thereby  caused  the  death  of 
either  man  or  woman  he  should  be  executed.  During 
the  Middle  Ages,  too,  belief  in  love  spells  and  charms 
and  philtres  was  rife,  yet  after  all  it  is  to  the  Egyptians 
that  the  doubtful  credit  belongs  of  having  been  the  first 
to  systematize  such  practices. 

Magic  could  not  only  cause  very  disagreeable  incon- 
venience, but  it  might  also  bring  about  death  :  there  is  a 
set  of  directions  for  visiting  your  enemy  with  shivering 
and  fever — probably  ague — until  he  is  undone  ;  in  another 
place  we  are  told  how  a  man  may  be  made  to  die  of 
insomnia,  and  there  is  much  more  of  the  same  kind. 
Absurd  as  the   pretensions  of  the  magicians    may  seem, 


MAGIC   AND   RELIGION.  283 

the  multitude  thoroughly  believed  in  them,  and  great  was 
the  fear  of  sorcerers  and  of  sorcery.  In  Egypt  magical 
doctrines  were  not  mere  popular  superstitions  ;  they  were 
part  of  the  religion  of  the  land,  which  was  largely  based 
on  magic,  and  always  intimately  connected  with  it. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

AMULETS. 

TN  Egyptian  texts  of  all  periods  amulets  and  their 
-■-  uses  are  prominent.  They  are  represented  in  the 
scenes  as  borne  in  the  hands  or  worn  on  the  bodies  of 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  even  of  gods  ;  and 
as  minor  Egyptian  antiquities  they  abound.  Some  of 
these  objects  were  regarded  as  amulets  simply  on  account 
of  their  ideographic  value  as  hieroglyphs.  Others  were 
closely  connected  with  doctrines  sometimes  formulated 
to  explain  the  shape  of  the  amulets,  and  sometimes 
representing  forms  of  belief  otherwise  rarely  mentioned 
in  the  texts,  but  which  must  nevertheless  have  prevailed 
extensively,  judging  both  by  the  diffusion  of  the  amulets 
themselves  and  by  the  frequent  allusions  to  them.  Any 
sketch  of  the  Egyptian  religion  must  therefore  necessarily 
contain  some  account  of  these  objects. 

I.  The  commonest  and  most  important  of  all  Egyptian 
amulets  is  in  the  shape  of  a  scarabaeus  ;  generally  it  is 
modelled  with  the  wings  closed,  ^,  but  in  later  times  it 
also  represented  the  beetle  with  wings  outspread,  ^^^. 
The  insect  is  the  Ateuchus  sacer,  common  in  Mediter- 
ranean countries  and  especially  in  Egypt.  The  female 
Aietichiis  lays  her  egg  in  a  cake  of  dung,  rolls  this  in 
284 


THE   SCARAB.  285 

the  dust  and  makes  it  smooth  and  round  so  that  it  will 
keep  moist  and  serve  as  food  for  her  young  ;  and  finally 
she  deposits  it  in  a  hole  which  she  has  scooped  out 
in  the  ground,  and  covers  it  with  earth.  This  habit  had 
not  escaped  the  observation  of  the  Egyptians,  although 
they  had  failed  to  understand  it,  for  scientific  knowledge 
of  natural  history  was  very  slight  among  all  peoples 
of  antiquity.  The  Egyptian  supposed  the  scarabaeus 
to  be  male,  that  it  was  itself  born  anew  from  the  egg 
which  it  alone  had  made,  and  thus  lived  an  eternal  life. 
The  idea  of  the  phoenix  as  arising  from  its  own  ashes 
was  a  similar  one;  and  as  the  phoenix  subsequently 
became  a  symbol  of  human  immortality,  so  was  it  also 
with  the  scarabaeus  :  the  scarabaeus  came  forth  reanimate 
from  within  its  egg,  and  so  the  human  soul,  z.e.  the  da, 
would  emerge  from  its  mummy  into  new  life,  and,  winged 
like  the  scarabaeus,  fly  upwards  to  heaven  and  the  sun. 

Thus  the  scarabaeus  became  a  symbol  of  the  resur- 
rection, like  butterflies  and  flowers  in  later  times  ;  but  the 
Egyptians  were  confirmed  in  the  use  of  such  symbolism 
by  their  devotion  to  the  verbal  suggestions  of  their  own 
language.  The  Egyptian  name  of  the  beetle  was  ^/^e^er, 
a  word  which  also  means  "  to  become,"  "  to  come  into' 
being";  so  the  picture  of  the  scarabaeus  became  the 
ideographic  sign  for  that  verb,  especially  when  used  in 
the  sense  of  renewed  life  after  death.  And  it  was  believed 
that  for  the  man  who  was  buried  with  a  scarab  upon 
him  this  immortality  was  already  to  some  extent  secured, 
or  that  at  least  the  gods  might  be  constrained  to  grant  it.  ' 
Besides  being  guarantees  of  immortality,  scarabs  served 


286  AMULETS. 

a  second  purpose,  in  common  with  another  class  of  amulets 
consisting   of  conventional    images   of  the  jar   in    which 
the   heart   of  the   dead   was   usually  placed  when   taken 
out  of  the  body  at   embalmment,  O-      But  since  to   the 
Egyptian  the  heart  was  the  seat  of  life,  it  was  evident 
that,  as  many  of  the  religious  texts   imply  and  declare, 
there   could    be   no   resurrection    of  the   dead    who   were 
without  heart.     Hence  a  distinct  doctrine  was  gradually 
formulated  as  to  the  part  played  by  the  heart  in  the  next 
world  and  how  it  was  to  be  recovered  by  its  owner.     This 
taught   that    after    death    the   heart    led    an    independent 
existence,  journeying  alone  through  the  Underworld  until 
it  met  the  deceased  in  the  Hall  of  Judgment. 
y   The  doctrine  was  simple  in  itself,  but  to  the  Egyptian 
it  presented  great  difficulty ;    for   during  the  time  inter- 
vening between  death  and  judgment  the  Osiris  was  sup- 
posed  to   be  without   heart,  and  yet  to   be   alive.      The 
expedient  was  therefore  devised  of  providing  the  mummy 
with  a  provisional  heart  for  this  intermediate  period  by 
means  of  an  inscribed  amulet   of  stone  or   earthenware, 
either  of  heart-jar  shape  or  in  the  form  of  a  large  scarab, 
both  being  pledges  of  immortality.     The   inscription   on 
these  scarabs  ^  related  to  the  significance  of  the  heart,  and 
in   it  the  dead  desires  that  his  heart  may  be  with  him 
when  he  assumes  his  different  forms  in  the  Underworld, 
that  it  may  not  give  evidence  against  him  in  the  Hall  of 
Judgment,  but  may  take  his  part  at  the  momentous  weigh- 
ing scene.     For  the  heart,  as  he  emphatically  asserts,  is  a 

-^   1  Birch,  Aeg.  Zeitschr.,  1866  and  1867:  cf.  Book  of  the  Dead, 
chaps,  xxvi. — xxx.,  Ixiv.,  11.  34-6. 


THE   HEART   AND   THE    TET  AMULET.  28/ 

distinct  personality  within  him  :  it  is  the  god  Khnum,  the 
creator,  strengthening  and  making  sound  his  Hmbs.  It 
is  also  independent,  able  to  find  its  own  way,  and  to  open 
the  path  to  the  gods  both  for  the  dead  and  for  his  name. 
In  conclusion,  the  deceased  assumes  that  his  wishes  are 
already  granted  ;  his  heart  has  been  favourable  to  him, 
there  is  joy  at  the  Judgment,  and  he  lives,  i.e.  he  is 
pronounced  worthy  of  immortality. 

This  formula  and  its  explanatory  texts  teach  the  curious 
doctrine  that  it  is  not  the  heart  which  sins,  but  only  its 
fleshly  envelope.  The  heart  was  and  still  remained  pure, 
and  in  the  Underworld  accused  its  earthly  covering  of 
any  impurities  contracted.  Only  if  the  latter  was  pure 
did  it  return  to  its  place  ;  otherwise  it  probably  dwelt  in  a 
place  set  apart  as  the  Abode  of  Hearts,  and  so  devoted 
its  former  possessor  to  destruction.  Like  all  amulets, 
the  heart  scarab  was  only  of  temporary  efficacy ;  once 
the  judgment  had  taken  place  it  was  powerless  to  prevent 
destruction. 

2.  Generally  there  are  found  with  any  carefully  interred 
mummy  one  or  two  examples  of  an  amulet  in  the  form 
of  a  knot,  A,  and  made  of  gold,  red  stone,  or  glazed 
ware :  this  amulet  is  called  tet.  According  to  the  texts 
with  which  it  is  sometimes  inscribed,^  it  represents  the 
blood  of  Isis,  which,  together  with  her  conjurations  and 
formulas,  protected  the  dead  and  destroyed  all  that  was 
harmful  to  him.  If  such  an  object  was  placed  with  a 
man  in  his  grave  it  enabled  him  to  become  one  of  the 

1  Book  of  the  Dead,  chap.  clvi.  :  cf.  Maspero,  Mem.  sur 
quelques  Pa;p.  du  Louvre,  pp.  i  et  seq. 


288  AMULETS. 

followers  of  Osiris  ;  the  doors  of  the  Underworld  and  the 
ways  of  heaven  and  of  earth  were  open  to  him,  and  a  corn- 
field was  granted  to  him  in  the  Fields  of  Aalu.  The  amulet 
was  most  efficacious  when  made  of  carnelian  and  hung 
about  the  neck  of  the  dead  ;  but,  judging  from  the  various 
positions  in  which  it  is  found  on  mummies,  no  particular 
weight  seems  to  have  been  attached  to  the  latter  direction. 
3.  The  sign  "¥"  is  found  as  an  amulet ;  this  too 
represents  a  knot.  Since  dnkJi  was  the  name  of  the 
knot  and  also  a  word  meaning  "  life,"  the  picture  of 
it  served  as  the  ideogram  for  the 
letter.  It  has  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  a  cross ;  the  name  of  crux 
ansata  has  no  more  relation  to  its 
origin  or  nature  than  the  countless 
conjectures  as  to  its  hidden  mean- 
ing made  before  the  decipherment 

FIG.    71. —  PERSONIFIED    ANKH.  ^ 

(l.  d.  III.  207,  b.)  of  the  hieroglyphics  and    even  at 

Khunsu  Temple^  K^arnak,xxth    ^^^  present  day.       The   sign  was 

placed  in  the  hands  of  gods  and 
kings  to  show  that  they  were  living  ;  and  in  some  cases 
they  are  represented  as  using  it  to  "give  life,"  as  the 
Egyptians  called  it,  by  touching  with  the  symbol  the 
mouth  of  the  being  to  whom  they  are  imparting  their 
gift.  In  very  early-^times  an  independent  existence  had 
been  ascribed  to  the  dnkh  ;  there  is  an  inscription  on 
an  altar  dedicated  to  King  Pepi  of  the  Vlth  Dynasty^ 
which  names  the  dnkh  and  the  symbol  of  stability  {ded\ 
together  with  joy,  day,  the  year,  and  eternity,  as  beings 
1  Now  in  Turin.     Published  by  BONOMI  and  Birch  in  the  Trans- 


THE   DED  AMULET.  289 

to  receive  divine  honours.  In  scenes  we  may  also  find  a 
sort  of  pictorial  personification  of  the  sign,  furnished  with 
arms  and  legs. 

4.  The  ded  amulet,  ^,  has  been  much  misunderstood. 
It  has  been  taken  for  a  fourfold  altar,  a  stand  on  which 
sculptors  put  down  their  tools,  a  representation  of  the 
universe  showing  four  superimposed  worlds,  a  disbranched 
tree  trunk,  and  more  especially  for  a  Nilometer  ;  but  none 
of  these  identifications  has  been  proved.  The  inscriptions 
show  that  the  Egyptians  themselves  considered  that  the 
symbol  stood  for  the  backbone  of  the  god  Osiris,  that 
part  of  his  body  which  was  kept  as  a  sacred  relic  in 
the  city  of  Busiris  in  Lower  Egypt.  The  backbone  gives 
stability  and  firmness  ;  and  the  setting  up  of  the  back- 
bone of  Osiris  was  one  of  the  most  important  functions 
at  the  restoration  of  his  body  after  its  dismemberment. 
This  was  annually  celebrated  at  Busiris  on  the  30th 
Khoiak,  at  the  end  of  that  part  of  the  Egyptian  year 
devoted  to  the  Osirian  festivals,  and  was  kept  with 
strange  rites  ;  e.g.  the  priests  of  the  different  sanctuaries 
fought  together  with  fists  and  cudgels.  This  was 
probably  the  same  feast  as  that  described  by  Herodotus  ^ 

actions  of  the  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch.,  iii.,  pp.  no  et  seq.  An  attempt  has 
lately  been  made  to  show  that  a  long  series  of  monuments  inscribed 
with  names  of  sovereigns  of  the  Old  Kingdom — this  monument 
included — are  forgeries  of  the  end  of  the  New  Empire.  I  must 
confess  that  in  by  far  the  greater  number  of  instances  this  attempt 
seems  to  me  to  have  failed :  in  the  case  of  this  altar  there  seems 
no  reasonable  motive  why  any  Egyptian  should  have  taken  the 
trouble  to  forge  either  the  altar  itself,  the  king's  name  upon  it,  or 
the  list  of  divinities. 
1  Cf.  Wiedemann,  Herodot's  Zweites  Buck,  pp.  265-6. 

19 


290  AMULETS. 

as  celebrated  at  Papremis,  another  city  of  the  Delta,  and 
which  was  supposed  to  show  how  once  the  followers  of 
Set  had  opposed  the  restoration  of  Osiris. 

The  ded  amulet  was  a  memorial  of  the  resurrection  of 
Osiris,  and  by  virtue  of  its  name  it  acquired  a  further 
significance.  Ded  means  "  firm,"  "  established,"  and  this 
quality  or  condition  was  greatly  desired  by  the  Egyptians 
for  their  dead.  Chapter  CLV.  in  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
is  devoted  to  this  amulet.  The  picture  of  the  symbol  is 
given,  and  the  deceased  speaks  :  "  Thy  back  (backbone ) 
is  thine,  thou  who  art  of  the  still  heart  (Osiris) ;  it  is  granted 
in  thy  place.  I  give  unto  thee  thy  needful  humour  {jiifi). 
I  bring  unto  thee  the  ded,  whereupon  thou  rejoicest  These 
are  the  words  to  speak  over  a  gilded  ded  made  from  the 
heart  of  a  sycomore  and  placed  on  the  neck  of  the  glorified 
one.  Then  he  shall  enter  through  the  door  of  Duat.  This 
shall  be  done  in  his  place  on  that  day  on  which  begins  the 
year  of  the  followers  of  Osiris  {i.e.  on  the  first  day  of  the 
god's  new  life).  If  a  man  knows  this  chapter  he  is  a 
perfect  glorified  one  in  the  Underworld,  who  shall  not  be 
turned  back  at  the  gate  of  Amenti,  to  whom  shall  be 
given  bread,  cakes,  quantities  of  flesh  on  the  altars  of  Ra 
(Variant :  of  Osiris  the  Good  Being)  ;  right  are  his  (the 
deceased's)  words  {tnad  k/ier/i)  against  his  enemies  in  the 
Underworld,  in  true  wise."  As  the  text  shows,  this  amulet 
also  procured  for  the  dead  entrance  in  the  Underworld,  and 
sufficed  to  provide  him  with  needful  food  there.  The  Egyp- 
tians, however,  judged  it  more  prudent  not  to  trust  to  one 
amulet  alone,  but  rather  to  be  buried  with  many,  so  that  in 
case  any  one  failed  in  its  object  others  might  take  its  place. 


THE   PAPYRUS   COLUMN — THE    USEKH.  29 1 

5.  The  significance  of  the  papyrus  column  |  ^  as  an 
amulet  was  chiefly  owing  to  its  ideographic  value :  its  name 
was  fins,  a  word  which  means  "  to  be  green,"  "  to  sprout 
up."  Here,  as  in  many  other  languages,  a  metaphor 
derived  from  plant  life  became  transferred  to  the  life  of 
the  soul.  A  Ptolemaic  relief  shows  plants  growing  out  of 
the  body  of  Osiris ;  this  represents  the  new  life  of  the 
dead  as  evolved  from  his  own  body  :  "  growing  green  "  be- 
comes a  paraphrase  for  "resurrection."  Chapter  CLIX.  of 
the  Book  of  the  Dead  was  devoted  to  this  amulet,  and  was 
to  be  spoken  over  a  little  felspar  model  on  which  the 
words  were  inscribed,  and  which  was  to  be  hung  round  the 
neck  of  the  deceased.  It  begins  with  the  invocation  :  "  O 
thou  who  goest  forth  on  that  day  from  the  house  of  the 
god,  great-speaking  mistress  of  potent  magic  formulas, 
who  comest  forth  by  the  gate  of  the  palace  and  seizest 
the  magic  formulas  of  her  father  ! "  this  being  evidently 
an  allusion  to  the  legend  of  Ra  and  Isis,  and  the  magic 
power  which  Isis  had  guilefully  acquired  from  him. 

6.  The  ilsekh  amulet  -^f  was  supposed  to  ensure  free- 
dom of  movement  after  death.  In  derivation  the  word 
Tisekk  means  "  to  be  wide  "  ;  it  is  specially  employed  in 
connexion  with  the  formula,  "  Thy  legs  are  wide " — 
i.e.  thou  movest  freely.^  This  is  the  attribute  symbolized 
by  the  amulet,  which  was  a  gold  necklace  and  was 
placed  on  the  neck  of  the  "  glorified  one."  According  to 
Chapter  CLVIII.    of  the  Book   of  the  Dead,  the  words 

1  Cf.  p.  219. 

2  Cf.  the  name  of  the  first  juds^e  in  the  hall  of  Osiris,  "  He 
whose  legs  are  wide  coming  from  Heliopolis  "  {Book  of  the  Dead., 
chap,  cxxv.,  1.   14). 


292  AMULETS. 

inscribed  on  it  should  be  :  "  My  father,  my  brother,  my 
mother,  and  thou,  Isis,  I  am  freed  from  my  mummy 
wrappings  and  I  see.  I  am  one  of  those  who  are  freed 
from  their  mummy  wrappings  and  who  see  the  god  Seb." 
As  in  most  similar  Egyptian  texts,  the  deceased  assumes 
that  his  prayer  is  fulfilled,  for  this  could  not  fail  to 
be  the  case  if  he  had  spoken  the  correct  formula  in 
the  right  way. 

7.  The  amulet  representing  the  human  eye,  with  in- 
dications of  the  lines  and  modellings  about  it,  was  in 
Egyptian  named  {iza.t.  Some  of  these  amulets  represented 
the  right  =^,  and  others  the  left  eye  "^^  of  the  god  Ra. 
But  as  the  right  represented  the  sun  and  the  left  the 
moon,  Ra  is  in  this  connexion  considered  as  the  god  of 
the  light  giving  heavenly  bodies  rather  than  as  the  Sun 
god  only.  The  eye  of  day  was  usually  called  the  eye 
of  Horus,  and  was  regarded  as  the  source  of  all  things 
good.  Many  useful  and  agreeable  products,  such  as  wine 
oil,  and  honey,  Were  said  to  come  from  it,  and  were 
ultimately  confounded  with  it  ;  sometimes  they  were 
said  to  come  from  its  tears.  The  eye  of  day,  and  also 
the  eye  of  night,  were  again  and  again  in  peril  from  the 
attacks  of  Set,  and  in  solar  or  lunar  eclipse  often  seemed 
to  have  been  conquered  by  him.  But  the  eye  always 
in  the  end  came  out  victorious,  and  hence  it  was  that 
the  dead  were  placed  under  its  protection,  in  the  hope 
that  they  too  would  triumph  over  the  powers  of  darkness 
and  of  death.  Besides,  the  word  i\::a  means  "  flourishing," 
"  healthy,"  and  as  an  ideogram  the  amulet  had  also  this 
significance.       It   was   bound   on    the   knuckles,    neck,  or 


SACRED   EYES — EMBLEMS   OF   RULE — THE   NAME.     293 

breast  of  the  mummy,  or  placed  within  the  abdomen. 
The  material  of  which  it  was  to  be  made  is  not  prescribed, 
and  it  is  found  in  gold,  lapis  lazuli,  felspar,  wood,  and 
glazed  ware  :  next  to  the  scarab  it  is  the  commonest  of 
all  Egyptian  amulets. 

8.  One  series  of  amulets  was  connected  with  somewhat 
different  ideas  :  they  represented  the  insignia  of  king- 
ship, especially  the  kingship  of  Osiris.  In  the  first  place 
there  were  net  \/,  the  red  crown  of  Lower  Egypt ;  /lejy 
Q,  the  white  crown  of  Upper  Egypt  ;  and  y ,  the 
pshent,  which  was  a  combination  of  the  two,  and  by 
assuming  which  Pharaoh  proclaimed  himself  lord  over 
the  whole  land.  In  the  second  place  there  were 
sceptres  :  the  amulet  of  the  royal  sceptre,  ih  1 ,  which 
gave  dominion  over  heaven  and  earth  ;  /lek  L  the 
shepherd's  crook,  also  used  as  the  ideogram  of  the  word 
kek,  "  to  rule "  ;  and  nekhekh  A ,  the  scourge.  The 
hek  and  nekhekh  symbolized  the  twofold  power  of  the 
king  :  to  restrain  and  moderate,  and  to  incite  to  progress. 
These  and  other  similar  amulets  were  given  to  the  dead 
with  the  idea  that  he  would  not  merely  continue  the  same 
kind  of  life  which  he  had  led  here,  but  that  he  would 
become  an  Osiris,  a  ruler  of  the  Underworld.  The 
necessary  badges  of  his  dominion  were  therefore  placed 
ready  to  his  hand,  and  their  intrinsic  magic  efficacy  was 
a  further  guarantee  that  he  would  surely  attain  to  the 
power  which  they  symbolized. 

9.  The  amulet  CZZ>  represents  the  so-called  "  cartouche," 
or  "  royal  oval,"  which  enclosed  the  names  of  the  kings 
and   of  the  kings    of  the   gods,  so   that   even   in  writing 


294  AMULETS. 

such  names  should  be  obviously  distinguished.  This 
amulet  stood  for  the  name  of  the  dead  ;  for  the  Egyp- 
tians regarded  the  name  not  only  as  part  of  a  man, 
but  also  as  part  of  his  immortal  ego :  no  being  could 
exist  without  a  name.  Hence  it  was  a  man's  supreme 
wish  that  his  name  might  live,  for  if  his  name  continued 
that  which  it  expressed  would  also  live  on.  This 
was  the  main  object  of  the  careful  reiteration  of  the 
name  in  inscriptions  on  the  walls  of  temples,  stelae,  and 
other  monuments :  that  it  might  be  spoken  and  kept  alive 
by  the  readers.  Even  in  Pyramid  times  a  formula  had 
been  compounded,  which  remained  in  use  to  the  end 
of  Egyptian  history,  constraining  the  gods  to  cause  the 
name  of  the  dead  to  flourish.^  But  it  was  also  needful 
to  protect  the  name,  since  to  know  the  true  name  of  any 
being  was  to  be  master  of  the  owner  and  of  his  powers. 
No  risk  was  involved  if  the  name  were  inscribed  upon 
something  in  itself  sacred,  for  the  sacredness  of  the  object 
protected  the  name  also  ;  but  if  it  were  written  on  any- 
thing not  so  protected,  such  as  the  amulet  in  question, 
he  who  obtained  possession  of  the  latter  had  power  over 
the  name,  and  power  therefore  over  the  owner  of  the 
name.  Thus,  most  of  these  amulets  were  uninscribed : 
so  long  as  there  was  nothing  on  them  to  steal,  a  demon 
had  no  profit  in  possessing  himself  of  them.  This  doctrine 
of  names  did  not,  however,  remain  in  force  throughout 
the   whole   duration   of  the    Egyptian    monarchy :    under 

'  LlEBLEiN,  Le  Livre  Egyptien,  Que  mon  notnjleurisse,  Leipzig, 
1895  :  cf.  Wiedemann,  Le  Livre  des  Marts,  in  Le  Muscon,  xv., 
pp.  40  et  seq. 


THE   MENA.T.  295 

Amenophis  III.,  for  instance,  names  were  freely  inscribed 
on  these  talismans. 

10.  The  inend.t  (tv?  was  worn  hung  at  the  back  of 
the  neck,  serving  as  a  kind  of  counterpoise  to  the  neck- 
lace ;  it  was  worn  by  certain  goddesses,  and  also  by  Ptah. 
It  served  a  symbolic  as  well  as  a  practical  purpose  ;  the 
sight  of  the  mendt  drove  away  care,  even  as  the  sight 
and  sound  of  the  sistrum  brought  peace  and  joy  to  the 
heart.  It  was  also  a  sign  of  divine  protection,  and  as 
such  we  see  it  presented  by  goddesses  to  the  king  ;  as 
such  too  it  was  laid  with  the  dead,  especially  in  Saite 
times.^     Generally  it  was  made  in  glazed  ware. 

11.  The  following  amulets  should  here  be  mentioned 
and  briefly  described.  Their  wide  diffusion  testifies  to  the 
esteem  in  which  they  were  held  ;  but  their  exact  signifi- 
cance is  undetermined.  The  rarer  amulets  we  shall  not 
consider. 

T,  nefer,  represents  originally  a  heart  and  trachea  ; 
afterwards  it  appears  to  have  been  taken  for  a  stringed 
instrument.  It  is  the  ideogram  for  "  beautiful,"  "  good," 
and  as  an  amulet  was  meant  to  secure  these  qualities  to 
the  dead. 

Y,  sam,  signifies  "  union.  This  amulet  was  supposed 
to  secure  union  with  the  earth  in  "  good  "  and  orthodox 
burial,  and  also  union  with  the  gods,  a  pantheistic  deification, 
"^j  neh,  the  figure  of  a  right  angle.  The  sign  seems 
to  have  the  meaning  of  its  phonetic  value  neJi,  "  protection," 
ix.  divine  protection  to  the  soul. 

1  For  this  amulet  see  Lefebure,  Proc.  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch.,  xiii., 
pp.  333  etseq. 


296  AMULETS. 


s,  khekh,  sekhekh,  represents  a  level,  to  which,  how- 
ever, the  plummet  is  usually  lacking.  It  symbolized  the 
justice  and  moderation  hoped  for  on  behalf  of  the  dead. 

[O],  khfi,  the  image  of  the  sun  rising  on  the  hilly 
horizon,  and  the  symbol  of  the  god  Ra  Harmakhis.  The 
dead  man  provided  with  this  amulet  was  assured  of  union 
with  the  sun  ;  he  might  rise  with  the  sun  in  the  morning 
and  sink  with  it  to  rest  at  night :  in  short,  he  would  be 
as  a  god  in  the  next  world. 

12.  Statuettes  of  gods  or  figures  of  their  insignia  were 
laid  with  the  dead  in  their  coffins  and  abound  in  Egyptian 
tombs  ;  generally  they  are  of  glazed  ware  and  furnished 
with  a  ring  for  suspension.  Necklaces  of  these  alone,  or 
in  combination  with  other  amulets,  were  hung  round  the 
necks  of  mummies.  By  taking  with  him  the  statuette  of 
any  god  the  deceased  placed  himself  under  the  special 
protection  of  that  deity,  who  would  help  him  according 
to  its  power  in  the  world  to  come :  Osiris  would  up- 
hold him  at  the  Last  Judgment ;  Isis  and  Nephthys 
would  recite  potent  formulas  in  singing  his  funeral 
lament  ;  Khnum  would  help  him  to  build  up  his  new 
body,  etc.  The  greater  the  number  and  variety  of  such 
statuettes  a  man  took  with  him,  the  more  certain  might 
he  feel  that,  where  the  power  of  one  god  for  his  help 
and  protection  ceased,  it  would  be  supplemented  by  that 
of  another. 

The  same  purpose  might  be  served  by  drawing  pictures 
of  the  gods  in  question  on  mummy  wrappings  or  on  the 
coffin  ;  pictures  or  statuettes  alike  were  supposed  to  be 
changed    into   the    real    gods,   who    in    the    Underworld 


MODELS   OF   FOOD.  297 

hastened  to  the  service  of  the  dead  as  soon  as  he  invoked 
them  by  the  correct  formulas. 

13.  Other  counterfeits  placed  with  the  dead  might  in 
the  same  way  be  changed  into  corresponding  realities  in 
the  next  world  :  an  expedient  which  greatly  reduced  the 
cost  of  funerals.  These  votive  objects  were,  in  the  first 
place,  tiny  models  of  useful  articles,  such  as  shirt  like 
garments  finished  off  with  a  fringe  round  the  bottom, 
A  ;  this  was  generally  made  in  stone.  There  were 
also  stone  or  earthenware  models  of  seals,  Q,  and  of 
head  rests,  ^,  which  the  Ancient  Egyptian,  like  the 
present  Soudanese,  placed  under  his  head  to  preserve  the 
arrangement  of  his  hair  during  sleep  ;  and  of  tools,  etc., 
of  all  kinds.  Food  also  was  thus  symbolically  represented, 
a  custom  to  which  Herodotus  alludes  when  he  tells  how 
poor  Egyptians,  at  the  feast  of  the  full  moon,  made  votive 
swine  of  dough  to  take  the  place  of  real  swine  as  offer- 
ings.^ Funerary  offerings,  however,  were  often  made,  not 
of  perishable  bread,  but  of  stone  or  of  glazed  ware,  and 
by  virtue  of  magic  formulas  these  produced  the  foods 
which  they  represented,  at  the  desire  of  the  dead.  The 
process  might  even  be  carried  so  far  that  not  only,  for 
instance,  one  ox  but  thousands  of  oxen  might  be  made 
from  the  one  image.  Generally  images  of  oxen  bound 
down  for  slaughter  were  made  of  red  earthenware.  There 
were  also  tiny  models  of  different  kinds  of  fruits  and 
many  of  loaves  of  bread,  ■=.  These  so  called  "  funerary 
cones  "  have  been  the  subject  of  many  false  explanations. 
Almost  invariably  they  are  of  unbaked  clay,  the  name 
'  ii.  47- 


298 


AMULETS. 


of  the  dead  for  whom  they  were  intended  being  written 
on  the  flat  base  to  prevent  any  misappropriation  of  the 
supply.  And  there  were  models  of  libation  vases  S  for 
the  Nile  water,  which  they  kept  fresh  and  cool,  besides 
many  other  things  of  the  kind.  Sometimes  several 
offerings  were  combined  in  the  shape  of  a  little  altar 
piled    with    provisions    for  the    use   of  the   dead ;  one   of 


FIG.    72. — HYPOCEPHALUS    IN    THE    BRITISH    MUSEUM.       (DRAWN    BY 
W.    H.    RYLANDS,    ESQ.) 

these  little  altars,  now  in  my  possession,  is  scarcely  f  in. 
wide  by  f  in.  long,  and  displays  two  libation  vases,  four 
loaves  of  different  forms,  and  two  fruits.  Other  similar 
altars  are  still  more  richly  furnished. 

14.  Finally,  there  is  an  amulet  differing  essentially  from 
all  which  we  have  hitherto  considered,  and  known  as  a 
hypocephalus  because  usually  it  is  found  under  the  head 


THE    HYPOCEPHALUS.  299 

of  the  mummy.  The  hypocephalus  ^  is  generally  a  disk 
of  stuccoed  linen  ;  sometimes  it  is  found  in  bronze.  One 
side  is  blank,  but  the  upper  side,  that  upon  which  the 
head  rested,  is  covered  with  figures  and  inscriptions,  which 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  strictly  prescribed  but  rather 
to  have  varied  in  detail  acccording  to  taste.  On  the 
whole,  however,  the  purport  of  the  texts  is  much  the 
same,  and  a  description  of  the  hypocephalus  figured  in 
the  accompanying  illustration  may  stand  for  a  general 
description  of  all  such  objects.^ 

A  line  of  inscription  runs  round  the  disk  and  reads  : 
"  O  thou  shrine  in  Hat  benben,  Exalted  One,  Exalted 
One  !  Glorious  One,  Glorious  One!  Husband  [of  thy  mother], 
great,  living  God !  Chief  of  the  gods,  come  thou  to  the 
Osiris  Hor  (name  of  the  owner  of  this  hypocephalus), 
mad  kheril.  Grant  that  there  be  warmth  under  his  head, 
for  he  is  one  of  thy  followers."  A  central  band  of  figures 
crosses  the  field  of  the  disk  ;  the  central  figure  is  a 
squatting  god  with  four  rams'  heads,  two  turning  one 
way  and  two  another,  and  crowned.  This  god  is  Amen  ; 
the  four  heads  represent  the  four  winds,  and  show  that 
he  is  lord  of  the  winds  and  of  the  four  quarters  of  the 
world.  On  either  side  of  him  stand  three  cynocephali, 
each  wearing  the  solar  disk.  These  are  the  spirits  of 
the  East  and  of  the  West,  of  sunset  and    sunrise,  doing 

'  It  may  be  remarked  that  the  Mormon  reUgion  is  largely  founded 
on  a  fantastic  interpretation  of  such  a  hypocephalus. 

-  Published, /'rcc.  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch.,  vi.,  p.  52  :  cf.  I.e.,  pp.  2)1,  106, 
126,  129,  170,  185  ;  vii.,  p.  213  ;  Pleyte,  Chapitres  Supplhnentaires 
du  Livre  des  Marts,  162-163,  pp.  60  et  seg.;  Leemans  m  Mem.  du 
Congr.  des  Orientalistes  at  Leyden,  iv.  3,  pp.  91  et  seq. 


300  AMULETS. 

homage   to    Amen,   who   is    also   Amen    Ra,   the   god   of 
the  Sun. 

Directly  over  the  figure  of  Amen  is  the  figure  of  a  god 
with  two  human  heads,  of  which  one  is  turned  to  the 
right  and  the  other  to  the  left.  This  also  is  Amen, 
striding  from  West  to  East,  Hghting  and  looking  upon 
the  whole  world.  On  his  head  he  wears  the  plumes  of 
Amen,  the  sun  disk,  and  the  usual  ram's  horns.  The 
head  of  a  jackal  grows  from  either  shoulder,  emblematic 
of  the  two  forms  of  Anubis  as  Opener  of  the  path  of 
the  North  and  Opener  of  the  path  of  the  South,  and 
on  the  god's  sceptre  Anubis,  in  the  form  of  a  jackal, 
is  carried  as  his  guide.  To  his  right  is  an  inscription  : 
"  Thou  (Amen)  art  in  the  eight  souls  of  thy  gods,"  i.e. 
thou  appearest  in  all  the  divine  manifestations  which  thou 
animatest.  Beneath  the  inscription  the  Sun  god,  Ra,  sits 
in  his  bark,  in  the  form  of  a  sparrow  hawk  with  outspread 
wings.  On  the  other  side  of  Amen  are  two  barks,  one 
drawn  above  the  other  ;  on  the  middle  of  the  upper  boat  is 
perched  the  soul  ibci)  of  the  deceased,  the  name  of  Isis 
being  inscribed  on  one  side  of  it  and  the  name  of  Nephthys 
on  the  other,  in  allusion  to  the  deceased  as  an  Osiris, 
bewailed  and  protected  by  the  two  divine  sisters.  At  one 
end  of  the  lower  boat  squats  the  hawk  headed  Ra  ;  at  the 
opposite  end  is  written  the  word  ba,  "  soul  "  (of  the  deceased) ; 
between  them  is  a  scarabaeus  coming  towards  Ra  :  that  is, 
the  soul  of  the  deceased  in  the  form  of  a  scarabaeus,  of  the 
god  Khepera,  approaches  the  Sun  to  become  one  with  him 
and  with  the  universe. 

Turning  the  disk   upside  down,   on  the   other   side   of 


PANTHEISTIC   TENDENCY.  3OI 

the  central  band,  below  an  inscription  referring  to  the 
inundation  of  the  Nile,  we  find  a  scene  with  a  cow  in  the 
middle.  This  is  the  Mehurt,  or  Hathor  cow,  upon  whose 
thighs,  as  we  are  told  in  a  very  ancient  text,^  the  sun  of 
yesterday  was  born,  other  inscriptions  explaining  that  by 
this  is  meant  not  the  sun  of  the  previous  day,  but  the  night 
sun  which  had  been  born  on  the  evening  of  that  day,  for 
this  cow  was  one  of  the  forms  supposed  to  dwell  in  the 
western  sky.  Mehurt,  or  rather  the  nzat  which  is  born  of 
her,  is  the  sun,  or  the  moon,  and  therefore  behind  the  cow 
is  drawn  a  female  figure  with  an  fizat  eye  for  a  head.  In 
front  of  the  cow  stand  the  four  funerary  genii  which  have 
charge  of  the  viscera  of  the  dead,  while  behind  the  fizat 
headed  figure  is  a  scene  of  adoration.  Here  an  ithyphallic 
snake  god  figured  with  arms  and  legs,  the  cosmic  deity 
Nehebka,  is  adoring  a  winged  god  who  is  seated  upon  a 
throne,  crowned  with  the  solar  disk  and  bearing  a  scourge. 
This  is  intended  for  Amen  Min,  i.e.  for  Amen  as  the  god 
of  procreation. 

The  fundamental  idea  of  these  scenes  and  inscriptions 
is  pantheistic  :  they  express  a  belief  in  an  all  embracing 
power  of  nature,  especially  as  manifest  in  the  Sun.  This 
deity  was  the  source  of  the  gods,  and  they  were  mani- 
festations of  him  ;  this  was  the  power  which  protected  the 
dead,  and  their  hope  it  was  to  be  merged  in  him.  None 
the  less  this  universal  god  had  his  abode  in  Heliopolis,  in 
the  sanctuary  of  the  temple  of  the  Sun,  and  to  Heliopolis 
therefore  the  doctrine  must  be  traced.     These  Heliopolitan 

•  Book  of  the  Dead,  chap,  xvii.,  1.  29  :  cf.  Lepsius,  Aelfeste  Texte, 
pi.  11.,  1.  24;  pi.  xxxii.,  1.  36, 


L 


302  AMULETS. 

views,  however,  found  expression  on  the  hypocephalus, 
not  as  a  confession  of  faith  on  the  part  of  its  owner, 
but  only  because  he  hoped  to  induce  Amen  Ra  in  his 
pantheistic  form  to  grant  liim  the  warmth  needful  even  to 
the  dead. 

The  texts  which  most  clearly  set  forth  this  pantheistic 
tendency,  expressed  principally  in  late  Egyptian  texts,  are 
found  on  the  walls  of  the  temple  at  El  Khargeh,  which  was 
built  during  the  Persian  rule.  Here  we  have  a  long  hymn 
placed  in  the  mouths  of  eight  gods  which  have  been  con- 
sidered erroneously  as  gods  of  the  elements  ;  and  it  is  from 
this  that  the  following  passages  are  taken  ^ : — 

"  The  gods  salute  his  Majesty  as  their  lord,  who  revealeth 
himself  in  all  that  is,  and  whose  name  is  in  all,  in  the  hills 
as  in  the  river.  Amen  is  in  all  things.  This  venerable 
god  was  from  the  beginning,  the  earth  was  according  to  his 
plans  ;  he  is  Ptah,  the  greatest  among  the  gods.  .  .  .  The 
heaven  is  upon  his  head,  the  water  containeth  thy  secret. 
All  beings  praise  thee  when  thou  settest  at  evening  in  the 
Underworld  (Duat).  Thou  awakenest  Osiris  by  the  glory 
of  thy  rays.  They  who  rest  in  their  graves  hail  thee.  .  .  . 
Thou  art  lord,  thine  is  the  dominion.  Lord  of  heaven,  the 
earth  is  subject  to  thy  will.  The  gods  are  in  thine  hand 
and  mankind  licth  at  thy  feet.  What  god  is  like  unto  thee  ? 
The  land  of  Meinphis  openeth  to  thee  as  Ptah  ;  like  Amen 
thou  hast  made  thy  throne  in  Ankh-ta-ui  (Memphis). 
Thy  soul  is  the  support  of  both  heavens.     Thy  form  went 

'  Published  by  Brugsch,  J^eise  7iach  der  Oase  Khargeh,  pis.  25- 
27  :  cf.  Birch,  Trans.  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch.,  v.,  pp.  293  ctseq. ;  RenOUF, 
Lectures  on  the  Origifi  of  Religiou,  pp.  231  ct  seq. 


PANTHEISTIC   TENDENCY.  3O3 

forth  at  first  ;  thou  shinest  as  Amen,  Ra,  and  Ptah.  .  .  . 
Shu,  Tefnut,  Nut,  and  Khunsu  are  thy  forms  in  thy 
sanctuary  under  the  forms  of  Min  who  lifteth  his  feathers 
on  high.  .  .  .  Thou  art  Ptah,  thou  appearest  as  the  Nile. 
Thou  art  the  old,  thou  art  the  young.  Thou  givest  life  to 
the  earth  by  thy  flood  ;  thou  art  the  heaven,  thou  art  the 
earth  ;  thou  art  Duat,  thou  art  the  air,  and  all  that  in 
them  is." 

Such  ideas  of  the  entering  of  the  god  into  all  things,  or 
rather  of  the  entering  of  all  things  into  the  god,  were  of 
great  antiquity  in  Egypt :  in  the  Pyramid  texts  we 
find  the  same  views  applied  to  the  deified  dead  and  elabo- 
rately set  forth  in  very  crude  concrete  terms.^  There  we 
read  that  "  the  sky  weeps,  the  archers  (the  constellations) 
flee  away,  the  bones  of  the  guardian  of  the  gods  tremble 
and  their  subjects  flee,  when  they  see  the  dead  king  whose 
soul  appeareth  as  a  god,  who  liveth  on  his  fathers  and 
feedeth  on  his  mothers  ;  he  is  the  lord  of  magic  wisdom, 
whose  name  his  own  mother  knoweth  not."  He  devours 
men,  and  lives  on  the  gods  whom  he  hunts  with  the  assist- 
ance of  several  demons  ;  he  eats  their  magic  formulas  and 
consumes  their  magic  power  ;  the  great  gods  serve  him 
for  breakfast,  the  medium  gods  for  his  noonday  meal, 
the  little  ones  for  supper ;  the  old  gods,  male  and  female, 
he  uses  for  his  oven,  i.e.  for  fuel.  He  eats  the  crown  of 
Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  that  he  may  be  lord  of  the  whole 
land. 

These  pantheistic  views  found  their  way  into  the  Book 

'  Pyramid  of  Unas,  11.  496  et  seg.  ;  Pyramid  of  Tcta,  11.  319 
et  seq. 


304  AMULETS. 

of  the  Dead.  Chapter  CLXII./  "  The  chapter  of  giving 
warmth  under  the  head  of  a  glorified  one,"  is  devoted  to 
the  hypocephalus  and  is  characterized  by  a  long  series  of 
passages  of  similar  import  to  those  given  above. 

"  Hail  to  thee,  mighty  lion  (sacred  animal  of  Ra),  Ex- 
alted One  with  the  two  feathers.  Lord  of  the  Diadem, 
thou  who  wieldest  the  scourge.  Thou  art  lord  of  virility 
growing  in  shining  rays,  to  the  splendour  of  which  there 
is  no  limit.  Thou  art  the  lord  of  many  bright  coloured 
forms,  who  embraceth  them  in  his  ii::at  (the  sun)  for  his 
children  (mankind).  Thou  protectest  those  who  are 
separated  from  the  circle  of  the  Ennead  of  the  gods 
(?  probably  beings  of  the  Underworld).  Thou  runner, 
striding  far  forth  with  his  legs.  Thou  art  the  god  of 
salvation,  coming  to  him  who  calleth  upon  him,  saving  the 
wretched  from  the  hand  of  his  oppressor. 

"  Come  at  my  call.  I  am  the  cow  (Mehurt).  Thy 
name  is  in  my  mouth  ;  I  will  speak  it :  P etihakaJiakaher 
is  thy  name,  Ailldiladkresaank-Lebati  is  thy  name,  KJiaib- 
indu-serdu  ("  shadow  of  the  lion  of  the  ram  ")  is  thy  name, 
KJialsatd  is  thy  name. 

"  I  praise  thy  name,  I  the  cow.  Hearken  unto  my 
prayer  on  this  day  ;  give  warmth  under  the  head  of  Ra. 
Protect  him  in  Duat,  renewing  him  in  Heliopolis.  Grant 
that  he  may  be  even  as  one  who  is  upon  earth.  He  is 
thy  soul.     Forget  not  his  name. 

"  Come  unto  the  Osiris  N.  N.  Grant  that  there  be 
warmth  under  his  head.     Oh  !  he  is  the  soul  of  the  great 

^  Cf.  Pleyte,  Chapitres  Supplementaires  du  Livre  des  Moris, 
chaps.  162-3,  PP-  6  ei  seq. 


BOOK  OF   THE  DEAD,   CHAPTER   CLXH.  305 

corpse  which  rested  in  Heh'opoHs,  (Ra,)  the  Radiant  One, 
He  who  becometh,  the  Great  One  (or  the  Ancient  One) 
is  his  name.  Barekatdthafia  is  his  name.  Come  !  Grant 
that  he  may  be  Hke  unto  one  of  thy  followers.  Oh  !  he 
is  thyself. 

"  [These  are  the]  words  for  a  young  cow  which  is  made 
out  of  beautiful  gold  and  placed  on  the  neck  of  a  glorified 
one,  and  which  are  written  upon  a  new  papyrus  leaf  which 
is  placed  under  his  head.  Henceforth  there  is  much 
warmth  in  all  his  forms,  even  as  it  was  upon  earth.  This 
is  a  very  great  talisman  which  was  made  by  the  cow  for 
her  son  Ra  at  his  setting.  Then 
was  his  throne  surrounded  by 
comrades,  to  protect  him  from 
the  fire  (?)  ;  he  was  renewed 
in  the  Underworld,  nor  was 
he  shut  out  by  any  gate  of 

m.  r  1    1  i  1  FIG-     73- — THE     MEHURT     COW.         VIG- 

at,  conformably   to   order 

'  ''  '-'ivav,!  NETTE     OF     CHAP.     CLXII.     OF     BOOK 

(the    result   being    inevitable      of  the  dead,    (leps.,   'todt.') 

r  1  ,,  .  ,  Ptolemaic. 

lor  one  who  wore  this  amulet). 

"  Words  which  thou  hast  to  speak  when  thou  placest 
this  goddess  (the  cow)  on  the  neck  of  a  glorified  one  : 
'O  Hidden  One  {A7ncii)  among  beings,  Amen,  who 
dwellest  in  heaven,  mayest  thou  turn  thy  face  hither 
towards  the  corpse  of  thy  son  (the  deceased) ;  restore  him 
to  health  in  the  Underworld.' 

"This  book  is  a  great  secret.  Let  it  not  be  seen  of 
any  eye.  It  is  a  sin  to  know  it,  to  hide  it,  to  make  it, 
this  book  of  the  Lady  of  the  Temple  (the  cow)  whose 
name  is  hidden."      A    Leydcn    text  has    an  appendix  to 


306  AMULETS. 

the  effect  that  the  writing  was  made  by  the  cow  (Isis,  as 
identified  with  Mehurt)  for  her  son  Horus,  and  concludes 
with  the  invocation  :  "  O  Osiris,  and  ye  dwellers  in  the 
Underworld,  may  you  protect  the  Osiris  N.  N.,  may  his 
well  being  be  your  well  being,  and  inversely  !  " 

It  is  obvious  from  this  text  that  the  fusion  of  the  Ra 
myth  with  the  Osirian  myth  was  complete.  Amen,  who 
is  as  Ra,  is  called  to  the  help  of  the  dead  because  the  god 
too  had  suffered  death  ;  the  same  plea  which  was  formerly 
addressed  to  Osiris.  Just  as  in  the  Osirian  faith  it  was 
held  that  the  most  potent  amulets  had  first  proved  their 
efficacy  in  the  case  of  Osiris  himself,  so  it  was  held  that 
the  hypocephalus  had  first  been  used  for  the  dead  Ra. 

The  Leyden  text  still  further  connects  the  hypocephalus 
with  the  Osirian  myth  by  stating  that  the  amulet  was  used 
by  Isis  for  Horus,  who  appears  in  the  later  versions  of  the 
myth  as  a  dead  god  restored  to  life.  Notwithstanding  the 
fundamental  pantheism  of  this  formula,  it  is  full  of  traces 
of  the  effort  to  preserve  the  distinct  individualities  and 
fates  of  different  gods  from  absorption  in  the  universal 
deit}\  To  this  end  the  gods  are  explained  as  equivalents 
of  that  deity,  which  is  shorn  of  its  all  embracing  nature 
and  imagined  in  the  form  of  a  man  in  order  that  to  it  also 
a  life  history  may  be  attributed.  The  above  text  is 
thus  an  interesting  example  of  the  absurdities  in  which 
the  Egyptians  were  necessarily  landed  whenever  they 
attempted  to  express  deep  philosophic  thought  in  terms 
of  their  religion.  It  was  inevitable  :  far  from  resigning  any 
article  of  their  ancient  faith,  they  invariably  sought  to  turn 
every  single  characteristic  of  it   to    account,  and   in   the 


DECAY  AND  DEATH  OF  THE  NATIONAL  RELIGION.      307 

ensuing  absurdities  lay  the  germs  of  the  decay  and  death 
of  the  national  religion.  The  thoughtful  Egyptian  must 
have  recognized  its  impossibilities  ;  he  must  have  admitted 
to  himself  that  gods  such  as  he  was  taught  to  worship 
could  in  nowise  be  co-existent  ;  he  must  have  known  that 
his  religion  was  not  true. 

When  Christian  evangelists  came  into  the  Valley  of 
the  Nile,  apparently  the  people  in  general  gave  up 
their  heathen  faith  without  struggle.  Until  the  third 
century  A.D.  mention  was  indeed  made  of  the  ancient 
gods  on  the  walls  of  temples  and  in  inscriptions  ;  but 
these  were  official  documents  of  the  heathen  authorities  : 
to  the  people,  and  especially  to  the  upper  classes,  their 
gods  no  longer  appealed.  In  the  course  of  a  few  decades 
Christian  doctrines  had  penetrated  deeply  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  nation.  Among  all  the  translations  of 
the  books  of  the  Bible  the  Coptic  translation  is  the 
oldest ;  and  Coptic — the  spoken  language  of  the  country 
from  the  first  century  A.D. — was  the  daughter  tongue  of 
Ancient  Egyptian.  The  Coptic  version  was  no  learned 
book  intended  only  for  a  restricted  circle  of  adherents  to 
the  new  faith  ;  it  was  a  popular  work  issued  almost 
contemporaneously  in  different  dialects  of  the  country. 
Full  of  the  courage  of  faith  the  Christians  by  the  Nile 
endured  the  storm  of  persecution  which  broke  over  them 
under  Diocletian,  and  with  burning  zeal  took  part  in  the 
fierce  strife  concerning  dogmas  which  rent  the  Christian 
world  of  the  fourth  century.  Isolated  at  length  through 
rigid  adherence  to  doctrine,  to  this  day  the  Coptic  Church 
stands  aloof  from  the  rest  of  Christendom. 


INDEX 


adh,  68.     See  Ah. 

Aalii,  Aaril,  Field  of,  63. 

Aalu,  Fields  of,  48,  96,  254,  288. 

da  mdk,  70. 

db,  9. 

ab,  the,  242. 

Ab,  doctrine  and  amulets  of  the, 
242,  286-7. 

Abaton,  128-9. 

"  Abode  of  Hearts,"  287, 

of  Horus,"  142. 

of  the  Cow,"  62,  214. 

Abstract  thought,  Egyptian  inca- 
pacity for,  174-5. 

Abu  Simbel,  134. 

Abydos,  10,  78,  162,  219,  248,  264. 

Acacia,  the  Nile,  155. 

Adonai,  Adonis,  35. 

Af  Rd,%t. 

African  (Hamitic  and  Negro) 
deities,   14S,  159-70. 

Agathokles,  267. 

Ah,  124,  150,  225. 

Ahmes,  228. 

Ahti  (Bes),  160,  164. 

Ai,  tomb  of,  39. 

Aker,  194,  199. 

Alexander  the  Great,  53,  120,  188-9. 

Altars,  funerary,  models  of,  298. 

Amasis,  199. 


Ambracia,  153. 

Am  Dilat.     See  Book  of. 

Ameii,  43,  108,  125,  302,  303,  305. 

Amen,  importance  of,  108,  107-9. 

fusion  with  Min  and  Ra,  108, 

1 12,  300,  301. 

See  Amen  Ra. 

Amenophis  III.,  163. 

Amenophis  IV.  (Khuenaten),  35-9. 

Amen  Ra,  12,  13,  87,   107,  108,  109^ 

118-22,  300- 
and  Aten  worship,   36-9, 

43- 

hymn  to,  1 1 1-18,  136. 

oracles  of,  120. 

sacred    animals    of,     87, 

119. 

Ament,  goddess,  123-4. 

Amenthes  (Amenti),  124. 

Amcnti,  85,  86,  88,  96,  101,  108,  290. 

Ames  sceptre,  113. 

amit,  61. 

Amset,  funerary  genius,  248. 

a  "  soul  of  Pe,"  163. 

Amsi,  127  (note).     See  Min. 

Amu  (Apis),  priestesses  of  city  of, 
61. 

Amulet  of  Khunsu,  276. 

Amulets,  diffusion  of,  191,284;  kinds 
of,  284  ;  dnkh,  288-9  ;  cartouche, 
293-5  ;  ded,  289-90 ;  figures  of 
deities,  168,  170,  296;  hek,  293; 
309 


310 


INDEX. 


hez,  293 ;    hypocephalus,    298   et 
seq. ;     khekh,     296 ;    khU,     296 ; 
Mehurt   cow,   305 ;    mc7iat,    295  ; 
ncfcr,  295 ;   nch,    295  ;    nekhekh, 
293  ;    net,     293  ;     pshent,     293  ; 
sacred   animals,    199;  sam,   295; 
scarabs,     284-7  \    ^^^.    287 ;    ilaz, 
291  ;  its,  293  ;  nsckh,  291-2  ;  ??2'a./, 
292. 
An  (Heliopolis),  17,  154. 
««,  column,  154. 
Anabe,  177. 

dndfi,  cynocephalus  of  Thoth,  68. 
Anatomy,  ignorance  of,  271. 
Ancestor  worship,  4. 
Anepu  (Anubis),  229. 
Anher,  12,  30,  78. 
Ani,  114,  116. 

Animal  incarnations,  idea  of,  essen- 
tially Egyptian,  173,  182. 
Animals,  worship  of,  4,    157,    15S, 
172-87. 

couchant  stone  figures  of,  199- 

200,  205. 
Animals,  sacred,  Egyptian  theory  of, 
180. 

immortality  of,  17S,  182-3. 

place  of,  in  temples,  122^ 

181. 

punished  and  killed,  178. 

rarely     represented      in 

scenes,    183-4. 
representing  divine  attri- 
butes, 179. 

worship     of     individual, 

173.  185-7. 

as   species,    119-20,    145, 

173.  i«5-7. 
Anit,  125. 
diikh,  288. 

amulet,  86,  288-9. 

Ankh  taui,  302. 
Anta,  149,  150,  151-2. 


144,  214. 
182,    183, 


188. 


Anthropomorphic      conception      of 

divinity,  173-4. 
Anubis   (Anepu),    87,   97,  209,   220, 
229-30,  248,  272,  300. 

of  the  North,  230,  300, 

of  the  South,  230,  300. 

sacred  animal  of,  229. 

Anfikt  (Anuki),  105,  130,  131. 
Apep  serpent,  49,  91,  92,  ico,  102. 
Apet,  168-9. 
"Aphrodite,  The  Golden,"  29. 

The  Strange,"  150. 

Apis  (Amu),  the  city,  61, 
Apis,    the    CHapi),     180, 

187-91. 

Horus  as  the,  214. 

miraculous  birth  of, 

oracles  of,  189. 

antiquity  of  worship  of,  188. 

Apollinopolis  Magna  (Edfu),  25. 

Parva,  27. 

Apollo,  153. 

and  Horus,  27,  269. 

"  Apollobox,"  268,  269. 

Apt-t-u  (Thebes;,  116. 

Apilat,  87,  272. 

Arabian  coins,  Bes  on,  162. 

Arcadia,  153. 

Aroeris  (Her-iir),  27-8,  49,  129,  143, 

207,  208,  224. 
ascm,  46. 

Asher,  temple  of,  122. 
Asiatic  deities,  14H,  \/^()  et  sc(j.,  159. 
Asklcf;ios  as  Imi'ithes,  139. 

and  dreams,  267. 

and  Pluto,  191. 

Aso,  queen  of  fJthiopia,  208. 
Assimilation  of  deities,   il,  25,    27, 

"]"].  See  Syncretism. 
Ast  (Isis),  76,  218-19. 
Astarte,   goddess,   70,    149,    160-1, 

153- 
queen  of  Byblos,  209. 


INDEX. 


^11 


Atef  crown,  the,  113. 
Aten,  the,  cartouche  of,  42. 

hymn  to,  39-42. 

worship  of,  35-44. 

ahr,  linear  measure,  86,  88. 
AUuchus  saci-r,  the,  284. 
Athene  as  Neith,  140. 
Athyr,  festival  of  17th,  209,  211-12, 
264. 

goddess  of,  261. 

Atum  (Atmu  Turn  Toraos),  31-2.  107. 
Augustus,  189,  192. 

B 

ha,  the,  233.  342,  2S5,  300. 
Baal(Bal).  127,  U9-50. 

and  Meat,  127. 

Babylon  (^at  Memphis),  117. 

Back  of  Seb,  230. 

•'  Backbone  of  Osiris,"  289-90. 

bak,  26.  269. 

Bakh  (Bacis),  126. 

Bark  of  Eternity,  57. 

of  Horus,  70. 

of  Ra,  23-4,  72,  78,  89,  90,  97, 

101,  135. 

of  Sokaris,  135. 

Bast,  30,  138,  169. 

i'dii  (souls),  48  (•/  />(jss. 

Bekhten  (or  Bentresht)  Stela,   124, 

-74-7- 
Benben,  24,  39,  116. 
bi'itmi,  193. 

Bennu,  the,  193-4.     ^"(t-  Phoeni.x. 
Bent-anta,  152. 
Bentresht,  124,  274-7. 
Bes,  159-68. 

African  origin  of,  159,  167-8. 

and  Harpokrates,  164. 

and  Horus,  67. 

animal  of,  160-1. 

in  decorative  art,  162. 


Bes  in  birth  scenes,  1(12-4. 

in  the  Underworld,  168. 

on  Arabian  coins,  162. 

oracle  of,  162. 

besa,  160. 

Besas,  Christian  martyr,  162. 

Bethels,  betyls,  153-4. 

Bothshemesh  (Heliopolis),  17. 

Biggeh,  33. 

•'  Birth  House,"  the,  1(14. 

Birth    scenes    and    deities,     162-4, 

168-70. 
Blemmyes,    the,  and   Isis   worship, 

219. 
Blood  and  wine  offerings,  44. 
"  Blood  of  Isis,''  the,  287. 
Book  of  Am  Diiat,  83  ct  scq. 

of  Journeying  in  Eternity,  247. 

of  "  May  my  name  flourish  !  " 

247. 
of  Slaying  the  Hippopotamus, 

71- 

of  the  Breath,  247. 

second,  247. 

Book  of  the  Dead,  31,  133,  244  eiseq. 

confusion  in,  247. 

permanent    character  of, 

250. 

supplementary  texts,  246. 

Chap.  XV.,  44-51,  102. 

xvii.,  257-60. 

c.x.\v .  249-52. 

clviii.,  291-2. 

clxii..  304-6. 

of  the  Gates,  83,  95-6,  97-101. 

Bubastis,  32,  138,  109. 
Bull  of  Erment.     6'«v  Bakh. 

of  Memphis.     .><v  Apis. 

"  Bull  fair  of  face,"  1 16. 
of  his  mother."      Sec    "  Hus- 
band of  his  mother." 


312 


INDEX. 


Bull  of  offering,  117. 

strong,  126. 

Busiris,  219,  289. 

festivals  of,  289. 

Buto  (Uazit),  goddess,  141-2,  169. 

city,  163,  210,  214. 

Byblos,  Isis  at,  209-10. 
queen  of,  151,  209. 


Calendars   of    lucky    and    unlucky 

days,  262-5. 
"  Carrier  out  of  Plans  "  (Khunsii), 

124,  111--]  passim. 
"  Cartouche  "  or  name  amulet,  293-5. 
Cat,  black,  in  sorcery,  267. 
Cats,  continued  Egyptian  reverence 

for,  186. 
Celsus,  181,  272. 
Ceremonial   fighting    at  festival    of 

Osiris,  289. 
"  Chapter  of  Protecting  the  Ship,' 

74- 
Character  of  Ancient  Egj'ptians,  i  et 

pass. 
of  Ancient  Egyptian    religion, 

3-4. 
Chests,  talismanic,  93. 
"  Chief  of  the  Artificers,"  10. 
Christ  in  Egypt,  18-21,  yj. 
Christianity  in  Egypt,  76-7,  182,  194, 

307- 
Cicero,  264. 

Claudian,  poet,  on  dreams,  267. 
Clemens  of  Alexandria,  181. 
Colours  of  deities,  118  (and  note). 
Composite  figures  of  deities,  183-4. 
Conservatism,  i  ct  seq.  et  pass.     Sec 

Syncretism. 
Consistencj',  absence   of,    3,    5,   88, 

99,  107  ct  pass. 
Cor  da  myxa,  155. 
Cosmography,  Egyptian,  23,  64,  128. 


Cow,  Abode  of  the,  62,  214. 

of  Hathor  or  Isis,  64,  143. 

of  Nut,  62-4. 

of  Rat,  15. 

Crocodile  and  Set,  70-4  ct  pass. 

god.     See  Sebak,  Sukhos. 

Crocodiles,  formulas  against,  277- 
Cmx  ansata,  288. 
Cubit  of  Ptah,  13 1-2. 

of  Thoth,  227. 

"  Cutter  in  pieces,"  88. 
CynaclH7ns  guttatiis,  161. 
Cynocephali  in  Duat,  89,  90,  95. 

of  Amen  Ra,  299. 

of  Thoth,  95,  226. 


Darkness  (Kek  and  Kekt),  233. 
•  and    Light,    conflict    between, 

79,  91  et  pass. 
Days,  auspicious  and  inauspicious, 

211,  262-5. 
Dead,  the.     See  Chaps.  IV.  and  IX. 

ct  pass. 
Death,  Egyptian  conception  of,  96-7 

ct  pass, 
deb,  70. 
Decadence    of    Egyptian    religion, 

1 70- 1,  30D-7. 
ded,  290. 

amulet,  289-90. 

Deir  el  Bahri,  sculptures  at,    62-3, 

184  (note). 
Demons  of  disease,  271-7. 

of  Duat,  84,  99  et  pass.,  247. 

Denderah,  30,  31,  32,  33,  34. 

goddess  of,  142. 

scenes  and  texts  from,  32,  163. 

Denit,  85. 

Determinatives,  26. 

"  Devourer  of  the  Arm,"  96. 

of  the  Underworld,"  249. 

Dht'iti  (Thoth),  225. 


INDEX. 


3^3 


Differentiation  of  deities,  ii,  27. 

Diocletian,  307. 

Dion5'sos  as  Osiris,  208. 

Diospolis  (Thebes),  107. 

"Director  of  the  Soldiers,"  10. 

Dirge  on  Ptolemaic  stela,  96-7. 

Disease,  theory  of  health  and,  271-2 

demons  of,  271-7. 

conjurations  against,  272  ris/:(/. 

Dog,  the,  and  Anubis,  229. 

"  Double  Heart  of  the  Earth,"  89. 

Dreams,  265-8,  277. 

interpreting  of,  266. 

Duat,     the     Underworld,     45,     83, 
Chap.  IV.  ct pass. 

demons  of,  84  ct  pass. 

divisions  of,  84,  99  et pass. 

Duamtitef,  funerary  genius,  248. 

one  of  the  "  souls  of  Nekheb," 

163. 
Dynasty,   the  divine,  32   (note),  63, 
107 

IV.,  188. 

v.,  4,  17,  53. 

VI.,  4. 

XL,  107. 

XII.,  17,  18,  179. 

XVIII.,  35,  82,   140,   152,  212, 


XIX.,  35,  82,  152,  177. 
XX.,  82,  83,  II  I,  120. 
XXL,  83,  120,  124,  150. 
XXIL,  83,  120. 
XXVI.,  124,  140,  162. 


Eagle  for  phoenix,  193. 
Eclipse,  solar  and  lunar,  79-80. 

god  of  solar,  11,  28. 

Edfu,  54,  124. 

Horus  of,  30,  69  ct  seq. 

Egg  of  moon,  132. 


Egg  of  Ptah,  131. 

of  sun,  132. 

of  world,  23 1 . 

Eileithyia,  city,  34. 

goddess  (Nekhebit),  141. 

,   Elements,  gods  of  the,  233,  302. 
Elephantine,  34,  60. 

triad  of,  130. 

El  Kab,  141. 
El  Khargeh,  302. 
Embalmment,  235,  271. 
Ennead,  48. 

formation  of,  105. 

Enneads  of  Heliopolis,  106. 
Epagomenal  days,  207,  211,  261. 
Erment,  15,  127. 

bull  of,  126. 

god  of,  125-6. 

triad  of,  15. 

erpd,  231. 

Esneh,  128. 

Esoterics  and  exoterics,  205-6. 

"  Eternal  House,'  the,  236. 

Eternity,  "  King  of,"  248. 

"  Land  of,"  45. 

"  Lord  of,"  42,  112. 

Heh  and  Heht,  233. 

Eudoxus  of  Cnidus,  189. 
Euhemerism,  151. 
Eye  of  Horus,  58  and  note,  292. 
ofRa  (as  Hathor  Sekhet),   59 

et  pass.,  292. 
sacred,  292.     See  Uzat. 


"Fair-resting  One  in  Thebes" 
(Khunsu),  124,  i-j^--] passim. 

"  Father  of  Terror  "  (Great  Sphinx), 
198. 

Feather  of  Maat,  217. 

of  Shu,  33. 

Feathers,  crown  of,  131,  159. 


314 


INDEX. 


Feathers,  two,  1 13  ci pass.,  217,  259, 

303.  304. 
Feline   goddesses,    32,    33,   34,    87, 

122,  138,  151,  186. 
Festivals,  harvest,  127. 

local,  12. 

of  Busiris,  289. 

of  Hapi,  145,  147. 

of  Hathor,  61  and  note,  142. 

of  Isis,  141. 

of  Osiris,  285. 

• of  quarter  month,  1 14, 

of  sixth  day  of  month,  1 14. 

of  Sokaris  Osiris,  135. 

of  the  New  Year,  57. 

"  Field  of  Rest,"  63. 
Fields  of  Aalu.     Sec  Aalu. 
Fire  of  Diiat,  93,  94. 

lakes  of,  247. 

living,  57. 

• spitting  serpents  of  Duat,  93, 

94,  99- 

worship,  137,  155  (note). 

"  First  Prophet  of  Amen,"  10. 
Formulas,    magic,    56,    67,  T^,   loi, 

272-4,  279  ci  pass. 

against  disease,  56,  271-7. 

wild  beasts,  snakes,  and 

crocodiles,  58,  67,  277-9. 
for  use  of  the  dead,  92,  279-80. 

Sec  Book  of  the  Dead. 

of  invocation,  267-70. 

written    and    swallowed,     58, 

274. 
Frcg,  symbol  of  resurrection,  129. 

headed  deities,  129,  146. 

Fimeral,  236-40. 

ritual,  83,  234-40. 

Funerary  cones,  297. 

feast,  240. 

furniture,  255-6. 

genii,  the  four,  248. 

offerings.     Sec  Offerings. 


Cliap. 


79- 


of 


191, 


Genii,  funerary,  248. 

tutelary  and  of  Duat 

IV.,  ctpass. 

Germanicus,  189. 

Gnostic  formulas,  267-9. 

papyri,  267. 

God,  "  the  "  and  "  a,"  109-1 1. 

Goddess,  Egyptian,  general  charac- 
ter of  the,  104. 

Goddesses  of  priestly  manufacture, 
15,  30,  32,  123. 

Gods  of  the  human  body,  271- 

Good  and  Evil,  conflict  between 

220-21. 

Goose  of  Amen  Ra,  121. 

of  Seb,  231. 

"Great  Green,  the,"  115  (note). 
"  Great     Seer,"     ''  Great     One 

Seeings,"  10  and  note. 
Greek  influence,  96,  170-1,  182 

194. 

• inscriptions,  266. 

Green-faced  deities,  118  (note),  140, 

217. 
Green  paint,  68. 
Groves,  sacred,  27,  181,  204. 

H 

hahioiT\\o\\\,  67. 

Hades,  for  Duat,  171. 

Hadrian,  188. 

Hait  (Bcs),  160. 

Hamitic  deities,  148,  167-8. 

Hapi,  the  Nile,  109,  145-7. 

Hapi,  the  sacred  bull  of  Mempliis, 

1 87.     See  Apis. 

funerary  genius,  248. 

one  of  the  "  souls  of  Pe,"  163. 

Harmakhis,  28-9,  44.  70,  71,  109,  1 16. 

Sec  Ra  Harmakhis. 


INDEX. 


315 


15. 


104,    125, 


170, 


solar 


Harpokrates      (Herpekhred) 
223-5. 

and  Bes,  164. 

Harvest  festivals,  127-S. 

goddess  of,  146. 

Hatbcnbcn,  21,  24,  116. 

Hathor,    17,    27,    32,    60 

142-3,  184  (note),  272. 

and  Mountain  of  the  West,  3 

170. 

festivals  of,  61-2  and  note. 

"  Golden,  The,"  29,  30. 

month  of,  261. 

sacred    animal    of,     143 

184  (note). 

tree  goddess,  143,  157. 

Hathors,  the  Seven,  143. 
Hathor  Sekhet,  59,  60,  6r. 
Hawks    as    incarnations    of 
deities,  15-16,  25-7,  28,  179. 
"  He  who  beholdeth  Ra,"  89. 
"  He  who  dwells  in  Amenti,"  { 
•"  He  who  reigneth  in  Truth 
Heart  amulets,  286-7. 

doctrine  of,  242,  286-7. 

weighing  of,  142,  248. 

"  Heart  of  the  Earth,"  89. 
Hearts,  Abode  of,  287. 
Heh  (god  of  Eternity),  233. 
Heht,  233. 
hck,  293. 

amulet,  293. 

Hek  (god),  101. 
Hekt,  129-30. 
Helen  of  Homer,  150. 
Heliopolis,   17-25,   30,    59,  60,   12 
145,  274,  304,  305. 

and  Asia,  25. 

Aten  worship  at,  35,  43. 

Enncads  of,  106. 

high  priest  of,  10. 

"lady  of,"  15. 

theology  of,  106-7,  245,  301-2 


'43. 


Helios  as  Ra,  Zo,  207,  208. 

Hen  ncter,  9, 

hennil  bark,  the,  135. 
Henotheism,  11,  36. 
Hephaestos  as  Ptah,  131,  137. 
Her,  27.     Sec  Horns. 
Hera  as  Satit,  130. 

Heracleopolis  Magna,  60. 

Herakles  as  Khunsu,  124. 

Ileraps/ieta,  30. 

Herbehudti,  30,  69  ct  seq. 

Herdema,  30. 

Hcrdcsher,  30. 

Herejnkhu,  28.     Sec  Harmakhis. 

Heremkhi'tti,  28-9.     Sec  Harmakhis. 

Herhekenuu,  30,  87. 

Hcrka,  30. 

Herkhc?ita?i»ia,  28,  32  (note). 

sacred  animal  of,  28. 

Her>nerti\  28. 

Hermes  as  Thoth,  207,  228. 

Trismegistos,  228. 

Hermopolis,  124. 

Hermopolite  Nome,  25. 

Heftiilb,  29-30. 

Herodotus,  18,   137,   141,   150,    199, 

211,  289. 
Heron,  ihebaun'r  bird,  193. 
Herpekhred,   210,  223-5.    See  Har- 
pokrates    and    Horus     .Son     of 
Isis. 
Hert,  30-1. 

Herur,  27,  207.     See  Anoeris. 
Herurshu,  28. 
Hesp,  6. 
Hest  (Isis),  218. 
"  Hidden  One,"  the,  loS,  109. 
Hill  worship,  155  (note). 
Hippopotamus  and  .Set,  70-4. 

sacred  to  Taiirt,  168. 

Hog  as  Set,  80,  96. 
Homer,  27,  150. 
Horapollo,  123. 


3i6 


INDEX. 


Horoscopes,  262. 

Horse,  151. 

Horus  (Her),   17,  27,  36,  56,  58,  93, 

109. 
Son  of  Isis,  27,  -ji,  78,  loi,  106, 

223-5,  261,  272,  273,  306, 

the  King,  22,  175. 

distinction     between    "  Horus 

Son  of  Isis  "  and  "  Horus  the  Sun 

God,"  27,  224-5. 

Eye  of,  58  and  note. 

"lord    of  not   seeing"    (Her- 

khentanma),  28. 
of  Edfu  (Herbehudti),   30,  69 

ct  seq. 
of  Letopolis  (Herkhentanma), 

II,  28. 
"of  the  Two  Eyes"(Hermerti), 

28. 
■  "on  the  Horizon"  (Heremkhu), 

28-9. 
"on  the  Two  Horizons"  (Her- 

emkhuti),  28. 
"  Opener    of    that    which    is 

Secret"  (Herapsheta),  30. 

the  Bull  (Herka),  30. 

the  Elder  (Herur),  27-8,  207. 

the  Golden  (Hernufc),  29-30. 

the  Red  (Herdesher),  30. 

Hours,  deities  of,  S9-90,  262. 

"  House  of  Birth,"  164. 

of    the    Obelisk."      See    Hat 

benben. 

of  Stars,"  21. 

of  Suckling, '  169. 

hii,  147. 

Hu,  87,  146. 

Human  incarnations  of  deity,  175-7. 

sacrifice,  204. 

"  Husband  (or  Bull)  of  his  mother," 

57, 104,  III. 
Hyksos,  the,  and  the  horse,  151. 
and  the  solar  cult,  12-13. 


Hymn  from  El  Khargeh,  302-3. 

to  Amen  Ra,  11 1 -i  8,  1 36. 

to  Aten,  40-2. 

to  the  Nile,  146-7. 

to  Ra,  44-51. 

Hymns  in  worship,  39,  44,  146. 

Hypocephalus,  298-306. 

description  of  a,  299-301. 

I 

Ibis  of  Thoth,  67,  92,  225. 

Ideograms,  31,  174-5. 

Imhetep  (Imuthes),  139. 

Imuthes  (Imhetep),    104,    132,   137,, 

139-40. 
Inundation,  god  of  the,  233. 
Invocations,  magic,  268-9  et pass. 
Irrigation,  7,  251. 
Isis  (Ast,  Hest),  15,  73,  76,  79,  92, 

loi,  106,  191,  218-19. 
and    Nephthys    as    mourners, 

215,  239;  present  at  birth,  162. 

and  Rat,  15. 

as  magician,  54-8,  75,  92,  219,. 

227,  273,  306. 
her  head  replaced  by  a  cow's, 

225. 

myth  of,  207-15. 

sacred  animal  of,  219. 

worship,  Roman,  and  the  dog, 

229. 
lusaas,  29. 


J 

Jackal,  sacred  to  Anubis,  229,  230. 

headed  deities,  89,  163. 

Judgment  before  Osiris,  248-52. 

Julian,  188. 

Junlperits  phoe7iicca,  155. 

Jupiter  (planet),  30. 

Justice.     See  Truth  and  Justice. 


INDEX. 


317 


K 


Ka,  the,  87,  240-2. 

of  Shu,  the,  87. 

the  king's,  176. 

Ka  (god),  146. 

Kambyses,  137,  200. 

Karnak,  125,  127. 

Kebehsenuf,  funerary  genius,  248. 

one  of  the   souls  of  Nekheb, 

163. 

Kedesh,  152-3. 

Kek  (darkness),  233. 

Kekt,  233. 

Kha  (sunrise),  30. 

Kha  (corpse),  234. 

Khafra,  29. 

Khaib\\ni,  242. 
khekh  amulet,  296. 
khens,  124. 
kheper,  31,  285. 

Khepera,  24,  31,  32,  44,  45.  SL  55, 
113,  197.  300. 

in  Duat,  92,  93. 

Khcpcrsh  helmet,  113. 

Kherau  (Bes),  160. 

Kherheb,  the,  139,  236-7. 

Kheta  treaty,  150,  151. 

Khoiak,  feasts  in,  135,  212,  215,  289. 

loth,  264. 

Khnum,      Khnef     (Khnumis),     105, 

128-9,  287. 
Khnum  Ra,  13,  43. 
Khnum,     sacred     animal     of,     119, 

128-9. 
Khntlviii,  the,  137. 
KhtZ  (glorified  dead),  48  ctpass.,  242. 
khu  amulet,  296. 
Khuenaten  (Amenophis  IV.),   36-9, 

43- 
Khufu,  53. 
Khimsu,  104,  107,  124-5,  225,  303. 

Carrier  out  of  Plans,    124,  275 

ci  pass. 


Khunsu,  Fair-resting  One  in  Thebes, 
124,  275  ct pass. 

Her,  125. 

month  of,  261. 

nefer  hetep  Shu,  33. 

Ra,  125. 

Shu,  125. 

Thoth,  124. 

King,  the,  as  incarnate  deity,  175-6. 

in  temple,  203. 

the   son   of  the  god,   53,   175, 

183-4. 
Kom  Ombo,  124-5. 

triad  of,  104. 

Krokodilopolis,  192. 

Kronos,  as  Seb,  207,  208,  231. 


Labyrintii,   t!ie,   crocodile  cemetery 

in,  193. 
"  Lady  of  the  Bark,"  87. 

of  tile  Temple,"  305. 

Lake  of  necropolis,  236. 

of  temple,  204. 

"  Land  of  Life,"  49,  50. 

of  Rest,"  49. 

of  the  Deep,"  67. 

Latin,  170. 

Latopolis,  33. 

Legend  or  myth  of  Isis  and  Osiris, 

206-218. 
of  Ra  and  Isis,  54-8,  214, 

291. 

ofthe  Destruction  of  Man- 
kind, 58-68,138,  231. 

1 —  Winged  Sun  Disk,  69-79. 

Leto  (Uazit),  141,  214. 
Letopolis,  27,  28,  117. 
Libanius,  145. 
Libyan  deities,  140,  148-9,  159. 

influence,  36. 

Libyans,  the,  iii,  ir_'. 
Light  and  darkness,  78-9. 


31! 


INDEX. 


Lion  and  Kedesh,  152. 

Lion,  solar,  167. 

Litanies  of  the  Sun,  83. 

"  Living  Soul  of  Ra,"  126,  128. 

Local  cults,  10-12,  105,  108,  186. 

Lotus  and  papyrus,  145-6. 

Bes  on,  167. 

symbol  of  resurrection,  138. 

Love  charms  and  philtres,  282. 

Lucian,  181. 

Lunar  deities,  28,  124,  225-7. 

Luxor,  163. 

Lycopolis  (Delta),  34,  230. 

(Upper  Egypt),  229,  230. 

M 

mad  kheril,  45,  83,  112,  246,  279-80. 
Maat,  106,  142. 

Madet  boat,  the,  23,  47,  48,  10 1. 
Magic  and  medicine.    See  Medicine. 
and   religion,    92,   94,    95,    99, 

279-80.  283. 
— —hurtful,  55,  281-2. 
practice  of,  58,  68,  267  et pass. 

Sec  Formulas. 
Mandrakes,  6o  and  note. 
Manetho,  265. 
Maqrizi,  21. 
Mars  (planet),  30. 
Marvels,  265. 
Mastabas,  16. 

Matarieh  (Heliopolis),  18,  19. 
Mdtafi,  III,  116. 
Medamot,  125. 
Medicine   and    magic,    56  ct  pass., 

271-7. 
viehen  serpent,  92. 
Mehurt  cow,  301,  304,  306. 
Mekhir,  13th  of,  264. 
Memphis,  32,  33,  34,  170,  188,  302. 

high  priest  of,  10. 

triad  of,  132. 

Menat  amulet,  132,  295. 


Mendes,  high  priest  of,  10,  219. 

Menes,  6. 

Menht,  169. 

Ment  (Month),  15,  125-6,  263. 

sacred  animal  of,  126. 

Ment  Ra,  125,  126. 

Mentuhetep,  coffin  of,  257. 

Merastrot.t,  150. 

Merenptah,  146,  175-6,  203. 

niesen  and  tncsentu,  7 1  and  note,  74, 

Meskhent,  163. 

Min,  28,  108,  127-8,  152,  303. 

Min  Amen,  108,  112. 

"  Modeller,  the,"  128. 

Monkeys  as  genii  of  Duat,  85. 

Monotheism,  question  of,  in  Egyp- 
tian religion,  log- 10. 

Monsters,  fabulous,  90,  179-80,  187. 

Month,  125. 

Morality,  Egyptian,  95,  252-3. 

Mountain  of  the  West,  30,  51,  170, 
236. 

Muhammed  and  cats,  186. 

Multiplication  of  the  same  divine 
personality,  230. 

Mummy,  the,  235. 

t?mt,  122-3. 

Mut,  107,  122-3. 

Mysticism,  Egyptian  bent  towards,  3. 

Mythology,  deities  without  place  in, 
104,  142,  149. 

Syncretic,  77  ct  pass. 

N 

Name  amulet,  294-5. 

the  doctrine  of  the,  155-8,  241, 

294-5. 
Nebhat  (Nephthys),  220. 
Nectanebus  L  (Nekhtherhebt),  83. 
IL,  reputed  father  of  Ale.xan- 

der,  53. 
nefcr,  295. 
amulet,  295. 


INDEX. 


319 


Neferaiti  Neferneferu,  42. 
NeferTum,  132,  137,  138-9. 
"  Negative  Contession,"  83,  250-3. 
nch,  295. 

amulet,  295. 

Nell  aha,  72. 

Nehebka,  301. 

Nehes,  87. 

Neith,  93,  140-1. 

Nekht  ah,  71. 

Nekheb,  163. 

Nekhebit  (Eileithyia),  71,  78,  141. 

iieklickli  amulet,  293. 

Nekit,  85. 

Nemmes  cap,  1 13. 

Nenu  (inundation  god),  233. 

Nenut,  233. 

Nepera,  146. 

Nephthys  (Nebhat),   loi,    106,  208, 

209,  215,  220,  239. 
net  amulet,  293. 
neter,  26. 
neter  niiti,  109. 
nctert,  26. 
net  Rd,  86. 
Nile  as  god  (Hapi),  145-7. 

gods,  146. 

Nilopolis,  188. 

Nomarch  as  a  deity,  176-7. 

Nomes,  cults  of,  8-12,  106,  155. 

list  of,  8-9. 

nature  of,  7. 

religious  jealousy  of,  11,  186. 

Nostrum  for  producing  dream,  267-8. 
Nil,  Nun,  the  primeval  water,  31,  33, 

46,  59,  62,  67,  loi,  113,  114,  117, 

133,  146,  232,  257,  258. 
Nubia,  33,  69. 
Nubian  deities,  131,  159. 
Nut,  Nunt,  water  and  tree  goddess, 

143-  157,  232. 
Nut,  goddess  of  the  sky,  50,  59,  62, 

63,  76,  loi,  106,  221,  231-2,  303. 


Oasis  of  Ammon,  120,  154. 

Obelisk  temples,  17. 

Obelisks   and  Svui  worship,    16-17, 

154.     Sec  Benben. 
Offerings,    funerary,   217,   239,    241,, 

297-8. 

to  gods,  44,  103,  254. 

'•  Offerings,  rich  in,"  92. 

Okhus,  200. 

Old  Kingdom  texts,  17. 

Olympias,  53. 

Ombos,  28,  143,  223. 

On  (An,  Heliopolis),  17. 

"  Opener  of  the  Eartli,''  89. 

of  the  Ways,"  230. 

''  Opening  of  the  Mouth,"  131. 
Oracle  of  Amen,  120-2. 

of  Apis,  the,  189. 

of  Bes,  162. 

of  Serapis,  266. 

of  Sukhos,  193. 

Origen,  181,  270,  272. 

Osirian  doctrine,  13,  234  et pass. 

antiquity  of,  243,  245. 

as    taught    in    different 

centres,  245. 
Osiris    (Aser),    12,    43,   67,    79,   88, 

91,  92,  93,   106,   107,   109,  207  et 

pass. 
and  Ra,  43-4,  91-3,  94,  101-2, 

212,  214-15,  218,  306. 

■  and  Sebak,  143. 

archetype  of  a  king,  52. 

as  Sebak,  143. 

backbone  of,  289,  290. 

- — •  festivals  of,  215,  289-90. 

human  nature  of,  213. 

king  of  the  dead,  43,  91-3,  217. 

— — •  legend  of,  78-9,  92,  207-11. 

mourning  for,  2:2,  213,  215. 

relics  of,  216-17. 


320 


INDEX. 


Osiris,  tombs  of,  210,  215-17. 

tree  of,  1 57,  209. 

who  encloses  Diiat,  loi. 

Osiris,  the  (animal),  182,  1S6,  194. 
the  (human),  44  ct  pass.,  240, 

243,  244,  247. 
Osiris  Amen,  167. 
Osiris   Hor,   hypocephalus  of  one, 

299. 


^'Paarmiathon,"  267,  270. 

Pakhons,  god  of  the  month,  261. 

Pakht,  138. 

Palm,  the,  157. 

Pamyles,  207. 

Panopolis,  28,  127. 

Pantheism,  tendency  to,  4,  109,  136, 

260,  301-6. 
Paophi,   4th,    5th,   6th,   9th,    22nd, 

29th  of,  263-4, 
Paphos,  153. 
Papremis,  289-90. 

Papyrus  sceptre,  219  and  note,  291. 
PaRd,  17. 
Paraskhistai,  271. 
Pa  rehehti,  72  and  note., 
Pa  Tfim,  32. 
Paulus  the  jurist,  282. 
Pe,  163. 

Peasant  cults,  158-9, 
Pe  khen,  70. 
Petestlkhos,  192. 
Pharaoh.     See  King, 
Philae,  33,  76,  131,  132,  138,  144. 
Phoenicians,  152,  162. 
Phoenix,  25,  50  and  note,   167,  187, 

193-4,  285. 
Phtha  (Ptah),  131. 
Piankhi  at  Heliopolis,  18-23. 
Pictured   objects   as   amulets,   etc, 

296-7, 
Pithom,  32. 


Planets,  30. 
Plato,  171. 
"  Pleasant  Life,"  70. 
Pliny,  189,  265. 
Plutarch,  28,  151. 

on  Osiris,  207-11,  264. 

Pluto  and  Serapis,  191. 
Porphyry,  131,  157,274. 
Priestess,  high,  10. 
Priests,  9-10. 

high,  10. 

of  Amen,  84. 

Prisse  papyrus,  252-3. 
"  Prophet,"  9,  17,  129. 
Psalms,  the  Hebrew,  iii. 
Psammetichus,  king,  188. 
psheiit  amulet,  293. 

crown,  113  and  note. 

Ptah,    12,  43,   104,  107,   1X2,  131-3, 

188,  302,  303. 
Ptah  aten  en  pet,  133. 
Ptah  Hapi,  133-4. 

Nu,  133. 

Osiris, -Sokaris,  -Sokar-Osiris, 

134-6. 

Tanen,  109,  134. 

Tatunen,  132,  134. 

Ptolemaic  texts,  54,  76,  96,  124,  266, 

281. 
Ptolemy  Epiphanes,  261-2. 
pth,  131. 
Punning  and  mythology,  61,  63,  67, 

68,  69  etpass.,  75-6. 
Punt,  III,  112. 
Pylons,  202. 
Pyramids  as  amulets,  16-17. 

priests  of,  17. 

sepulchral  nature  of,  16. 

Pyramid  te.xts,  4,  242,  243,  245, 

294,  303- 


0 


78, 


Ournah,  temple  of,  81. 


INDEX. 


321 


ra,  14. 

Ra,   14,  25-7,  30.  33,  36,  44.  5^  ct 

pass.,  83  etpass. 

and  Isis,  54-8. 

and    Osiris,    43-4,    91-3,     94, 

101-2,  212,  214-5,  218,  306. 

and  Sebak,  143. 

and  the  dead,  88-9,  9 1 . 

as  Pharaoh,  52,  91. 

barks  of,  23-4  etpass. 

fusion  of,  with  other  gods,  17, 

43,    108,    306.      Sec   Amen    a7id 

Osiris. 

hymns  to,  44. 

in  Duat,  84  ct  scq. 

in  his  Aten,  35. 

name  and  nature  of,  14-15. 

old  age  of,  55,  58. 

sacred  name  of,  56-8. 

Ra,  Son  of,"  or  "  Son  of  the  Sun," 

53- 

See  Amen  Ra. 

Ra  Harmakhis,  17,  32,  42, 49,  69,  197, 

266,  296. 
Ra  Harmakhis  Aten,  39. 
Ram  of  Amen  Ra,  Z6ct  pass.,  1 18-20. 

of  Khnum,  1 19,  128-9. 

of  Min,  127. 

Ramaka     (Hatshepsut),    birth     of, 

162-3. 
Rameses   II.,  81,    134,    146,    150-2, 

198. 

III.,  18,  54,  124,  146,  152. 

Rd-7tcb-mad  (Amenophis  IV.),  36. 

Ra.t  taui,  15-16,  30,  125. 

ReHcs  of  Osiris,  216-17. 

ren,  241.     See  Name. 

Rennut,  146. 

Renpt,  169-70. 

Reptiles,  formulas  against,  64-7. 

Rert,  169. 

Resef,  146. 


Resef  (Phoenician),  152. 
Reshpu,  152. 
Rhea  as  Nut,  207. 


Sa,  87. 

Sacred  Ways,  204-5. 
Safekht,  156,  226. 
Sahu,  the,  242,  243. 
Sais,  93,  199. 

festivals  of,  141. 

triad  of,  140. 

sam,  295. 

amulet,  295. 

Samhud,  122. 

Saqqarah,  god  of  the  necropolis  of, 

136. 
Satit,  105,  130. 
Saturn  (planet),  30. 
Scarabaeus,  the,  284-5. 

and  deities,  31,  88,  92,  146,  300. 

Scarabs,  284-7. 

Scribes,   carelessness  of  Egyptian, 

64,  84. 
Seb  (Keb),    59,   64,   106,    107,   134, 

230-1. 
Sebak,  143-5,  223.     See  Sukhos. 
Sebennytos,  30. 
Sehel,  131. 
Seked,  74. 

Seker  (Sokaris),  134. 
Sckhetn,  the,  1 1 2  (note),  242-3. 
Sekhet,  60,  61,  132, 137-8,  264. 

crown,  113,  114. 

Sekhmet  (Sekhet),  87. 
Sekti,  60. 

bark,  24,  47,  48,  51,  88,  135. 

Selene  in  Plutarch's  Osirian  legend, 

207. 
Semitic   deities   and   influence,    25, 

149-55,  223. 
Sepd,  160,  164-7. 
Sepulchral  texts,  83. 

21 


322 


INDEX. 


Serapeum,  217. 

discovery  of,  189-91, 

Serapis,  191, 266. 

Serbonian  lake,  150. 

Serpent  headed  deities,  301  passim. 

Serpents  and  Bes,  164. 

and  Taurt,  167. 

charms  against.    Sec  Formulas. 

fire  spitting,  93,  99. 

See  also  Apep  and  Uraeus. 

Set,  72  et  pass.,  96,  208  et  pass., 

220-3,  272,  292. 

as  Baal,  149. 

his  conflict  with  Horus,  78-9, 

214-5. 
sacred   animals   of,    144,    149, 

221,  223. 

stone  emblems  of,  1 54. 

Seti  I.,  54,  81,  221. 

tomb  and  sarcophagus  of,  82, 

84,  91. 
Shas  her,  74. 
Shedennu,  28. 
Sheshonk,  122. 
Shcsri,  85. 
Shrew  mouse,  28. 
shi't,  33. 
Shu,  32-3,  45  (note),  59,  62,  63,  78, 

93,  loi,  106,  303. 
Sinaitic  peninsula,  15. 
Siut,  230. 

"  Slayer  of  the  enemies,"  78. 
Sokaris,  51,  92,  94,  134-6. 
Solar  bias,  12-13,  43,  212-13,  304- 
"  Son  of  Ra,"  or  "  Son  of  the  Sun,'' 

53- 
Sorcery,  perils  ot,  281. 
Soul  of  the  Earth,  89. 
Souls  of  Nekheb  and  Pe,  163. 
Speech   of  Osiris,   of  Khepera,  of 

Tum,  of  Ra,  87. 
"  Spheres,"  262. 
Sphinx,  the,  194-7. 


Sphinx,  the  Great,  29,  197-8. 
Sphinxes,  187,  194,  199-200. 
Spontaneous  generation,  129-30. 
Spring  of  the  Sun,  18,  155. 
Springs,  sacred,  155. 
Star  worship,  226  (note). 
State,  the  Egyptian,  5-7. 
Statues  in  temples,  180. 

worked  by  mechanism,  122. 

Stones,  worship  of,  153-4. 
Story  of  King  Khufii,  53. 

of  Setna,  281. 

of  Two  Brothers,  52,  128,  211. 

Strabo,  81,  188,  192. 

Suffix,   the  feminine,   in  names   of 

goddesses,  15  and  note. 
Sukhos   (Sebak),    143,    187,  191-3- 

See  Sebak. 
Sutekh,  150,  222-3.     See  Set. 
Sycomore,  sacred.     See  Trees. 
Syncretism,  77.83,  92,  167,  169,  212,, 

243,  257,  260. 
Synesius  of  Cyrene,  269. 
Syntax,  Egyptian,  175. 


Talismans,  93.     See  Amulets. 
Tajnarix  nilotica,  155. 
Tanen,  134. 

as  earth  god,  50. 

Ta  neter,  112. 

Tanis,  29,  150,  221,  222,  223. 

Tatunen,  134. 

Taud,  125,  126. 

Taurt,  163,  168-70. 

as  deity  of  Duat,  170. 

in  Mykenaean  art,  170. 

Tefnut,  33-5,  106,  303. 
Tegea,  153. 
Tell  el  Amarna,  39. 
Temple,  the  Egyptian,  2co-6. 

approaches  to,  204-5. 

free  access  to,  205-6. 


INDEX. 


325 


Temple,  the  Egyptian,  original  nature 

of,  200. 

plan  of,  204-5. 

sacred  animal  in,  180-1. 

staff  of,  9-10. 

temenos  of,  204. 

wall  scenes  of,  203-4. 

Tes  Her,  75. 

tet  amulet,  287-8. 

Thalu,  73. 

Thebes,  32,  72,  124,  153. 

high  priest  of,  10. 

necropolis  of,  81. 

preponderance  of  remains  of, 

108. 

triad  of,  104,  107. 

Themis  as  Maa,  142. 

Theocritus,  282. 

Theodosius,  edict  of,  219. 

Oeot  (rvvvaoi,  1 03. 

This,  78. 

"Those   who    extol    upon    eartli," 

89. 
Thoth,  33,  64  ei  pass.,  70  ei  pass., 

109,  156,  207,  214,  225-9,  272. 

as  friend  of  the  dead,  227-8. 

as  god  of  magic,  214,  227. 

as  god  of  time,  227. 

as  scribe  of  the  gods  and  god 

of  writing,  156,  227,  228,  248. 
inXVIIIthandXIXthdynasties, 

228. 

month  of,  227,  261. 

Thothmosis  IV.,  198,  266. 

Time  deities,  89-90,  261-2. 

Titus,  189. 

Tomb,  the,  16,  137,  236,  245. 

Tombs  of  the  kings,  32,  81  etpass. 

Tomos,  31. 

Transformation,  power  of  voluntary, 

173,  256. 
Transliteration  of  Egyptian  words, 

6-7  (note),  15  (note). 


Tree  worship,  4,  155-9. 

Trees,  sacred,  21,  143,  193,209,227, 

233- 
Triad,  formation  of  the,  103-5. 

two  kinds  of,  105. 

Thebes,  104,  107. 

Truth,  lord  of,  36,  113. 

living  by,  42,  142. 

maker  of,  117.     5"i?^  Maat. 

Truth  and  Justice  (Maat),   88,  134, 

142,  217,  249,  250. 

figure  of,  48,  68. 

Tum  (Atum),  17,  29,  31-2,  36,  44,  49, 

56,  58. 

temple  of,  17-18. 

Turn  Harmakhis,  115. 
Tum  Khepera,  23,  118. 
Tumt,  32. 

Turin  papyri,  54,  257  et  seq. 
Twins,  Horus  and  Set,  116. 

of  the  zodiac,  34. 

Shu  and  Tefnut,  32-5. 

Tybi,  7th  of,  73. 

Typhon  as  Set,  208  et  pass. 

"  Typhonium,"  164. 

U 

Uas  sceptre,  25,  293- 
Uai'ia,  69,  74. 
Tiaz,  291. 

amulet,  291, 

Uazit,  71,  78,  141,  214. 

Unnefer,  loi,  211,  264. 

Uraeus,  25,  55,  90,93,  113,  138,  141. 

Uranos,  88  (note). 

Ornes,  88  and  note  et  pass. 

ilsekh,  291. 

amulet,  291-2. 

Usertesen  I.,  18. 

Ushebtiu,  254-5. 

Ushetnt  hatii  kheftiu  Rd,  86. 

nzat,  292. 

amulet,  292-3. 


324 


INDEX. 


Uzat  eye,  born  of  Mehurt,  301. 
eye  of  Turn,  153. 


Verse,  Egyptian,  in. 
Vulture  as  ideogram,  123. 
headdress,  131. 

W 

War,   religious,    11,   148,    186,    200, 

203-4. 

gods,  125,  127. 

scenes  in  temples,  203. 

Watchman,  the,  87. 

"  of  the  hours,"  87. 

"  Water  of  grapes,"  70. 

Wicked,  or  "unjustified,"  67,  85,  89, 

96,  249,  250. 
Winged  Sun  Disk,  69  et  scq. 


Winged    Sun    Disk   as  amulet,  75, 

77-8,  194,  202. 
"  Wood  of  Isis,"  210. 
Words  of  power  in  magic,  270. 

plays  on,  67-8,  75-6. 

Writing,  Egyptian  system  of,  2,  4, 

174-5- 
in  magic,  58,  267. 


Xois,  25. 

Y 
Year,  the  Egyptian,  207,  211. 

Z 

Zaru,  73. 

Zefa,  146. 

Zeus  Teleios,  153. 

Zizyphus  spina  Ckristi,  155. 

Zodiac,  gods  of  the  Egyptian 


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With  21  Illustrations. 

Crown    8vo,    cloth,      ^s. 

"Professor   Wiedemann's  treatise  is  quite  a  perfect  thing  of  its  kind. 

He  treats  his  fascinating  subject  with  marvellous  clearness,  and  the  reader 

follows  his  guidance  through  the  mazes  of  the  great  system  of  immortality 

with  breathless  interest." — Saturday  Revieiu. 

"  Prof.  Wiedemann's  little  book  appeals  not  only  to  the  Egyptologist,  but 
also  to  the  student  of  religion  and  history,  as  well  as  to  that  larger  public 
which  is  interested  in  all  that  relates  to  the  thoughts  and  beliefs  of  civilised 
men,  when  set  forth  in  lucid  language  by  a  skilful  and  learned  interpreter. 
Henceforward  it  will  be  impossible  not  to  have  a  clear  idea  of  what  the 
old  Egyptians  meant  when  they  spoke  of  ka  the  double,  of  ba  the  soul,  of 
ab  the  heart,  of  sahti  the  idealised  body  or  human  form,  of  khaib  the  shadow, 
and  of  the  '  Osiris  '  of  the  dead  man  himself." — Academy. 


RELIGION    OF   THE   ANCIENT  EGYPTIANS. 

-  With  73  Illustrations  from  the  Monuments. 

By  Alfred   Wiedemann,   Ph.D.,  Professor  in   the   University   of 
Bonn. 

Author  of  "  Aegyptische  Geschichte,"  "  Herodot's  Zweites  Buch," 
"  Ancient  Egyptian  Doctrine  of  Immortality,"  etc. 

Demy  8vo,  Cloth  extra.     Price  I2.y.  6d. 

This  MANUAL  OF  EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY  is  based  on  the 
original  texts,  references  to  which  are  given  in  the  footnotes.  It  is  care- 
fully illustrated  ;  and  a  full  index  facilitates  reference,  especially  in  the  case 
of  deities  that  receive  only  isolated  or  incidental  notice. 

The  work  is  also  a  description  of  Egyptian  religious  thought  and  belief 
prevailing  in  historic  times. 

The  author  is  well  known  throughout  Europe  for  his  valuable  writings 
on  the  history  and  mythology  of  Ancient  Egypt,  and  for  his  exhaustive 
knowledge  of  the  literature  bearing  upon  his  subject. 

This  work  is  the  only  Matmal  of  Egyptian  Mythology  hitherto  published 
in  England. 


H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING   STREET,  COVENT   GARDEN,  LONDON,  "W-C. 


EXCURSIONS   IN   GREECE 

TO    RECENTLY  EXPLORED    SITES    OF 

CLASSICAL    INTEREST 

(Mycenae,  Tiryns,  Dodona,  Delos,  Athens,  Olympia, 
Eleusis,  Epidauros,  Tanagra). 

A  Popular  Account  of  the  Results  of  Recent  Excavations  for 
Students  and  Travellers. 

By  Charles  Diehl,  Professor  at  the  University  of  Nancy. 

Translated  by  Emma  R.  Perkins, 

Illustrated.     Crown  8vo,  cloth.     7s.  6d. 

"  It  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  a  single  volume  in  English  which 

takes  so  comprehensive  a  survey   or  deals  with  its  materials  in  a  manner 

at  once  so  scientific  and  so  popular  as  this  work  of  M.  lyiehV—Tzwes. 

"  We  are  carried  round  Greece  by  a  very  entertaining  and  well-informed 
guide." — Academy. 

"A   book  of  considerable   value    to   the    English   student   of  classical 
archaeology. " — Saturday  Review. 

'•  Of  the  volume  in  general  we  may  say  that  it  is  of  the  very  greatest 
value."— /'fl//  Mall  Gazette. 


THE     OLYMPIC     GAMES. 
B.C.    776— A.D.    1896. 

Published  with  the  sanction  and  under  the  patronage  of  the 

Central  Committee  in  Athens. 

By  Sp.  p.  Lambros  and  N.  G.  Polites,  Professors  at  the 

University  of  Athens. 

Part  I. — The   Olympic   Games    in    Ancient   Times,    with 

10 1   Illustrations; 
Part  II. — The  History  of   the  Revival  of   the  Games. 
Participators,    Competitors,   Victors.     Description  of  the 
Festival  at  Athens. 

With  English  and  German  Text,  in  an  elegant  cover, 
2  Parts.     4to,   loi-. 

H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING  STREET,  COVENT   GARDEN    LONDON,  W.O 


O  L  Y  M  P  O  S  : 

Tales  of  the  Gods  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

By  Talfourd  Ely. 

With  47  Woodcuts  and  6  full-page  Photographic  Plates. 

Crown  8vo,  cloth,     "js.  6d. 

"  In  '  Olympos '  Professor  Talfourd  Ely  furnishes  a  book  which  should 
be  found  useful  by  a  large  number  of  readers  of  the  present  day.  The 
author  has  set  himself  to  provide  an  account,  which  shall  be  at  once 
systematic  and  readable,  of  the  chief  Greek  and  Roman  deities ;  accurate 
according  to  the  light  of  modern  researches  and  theories,  and  popular 
enough  in  style  for  general  reading — a  kind  of  Lempriere  up  to  date. 
One  feature  of  the  book  should  be  especially  useful  to  young  readers. 
Zeus  and  Jupiter,  Hera  and  Juno,  Poseidon  and  Neptune,  and  the  rest, 
have  parallel  but  distinct  accounts  given  to  them,  so  that  the  difference 
of  origin  of  Greek  and  Roman  deities  is  made  clear." — St.  James"  Gazette. 

"The  book  is  most  pleasantly  written,  and  is  the  fruit  of  laborious 
research  among  the  best  available  authorities  on  the  subject." — Echo. 

"  Makes  a  capital  gift-book." — Scotsman. 


MANUAL   OF   ARCHiEOLOGY : 

Containing  an  Introduction  to  Egyptian  and  Oriental 
Art,  Greek,  Etruscan,  and  Roman  Art. 

With  114  Illustrations. 

By  Talfourd  Ely,  Member  of  the  Councils  of  the  Society  for 

the  Promotion  of  Hellenic  Studies. 

Crown  8vo,  cloth,  6j'. 

"A  most  admirable  gift  to  those  who  take  an  intelligent  interest  in 
ancient  art  would  be  the  'Manual  of  Archaeology,'  by  Talfourd  Ely." — 
Graphic. 

"■  We  know  of  no  such  complete  and  concise  handbook  to  ancient  art  ; 
for  Mr.  Ely,  beginning  with  Egypt,  the  mother  of  the  sciences,  takes 
us  through  the  art  of  Chaldea  and  Assyria  to  that  of  Greece  and  Rome. '" — 
St.  J  acnes'  Gazette. 

H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN,  LONDON,  W.C. 


THE 
EGYPTIAN     STRUW WELPETER  ; 

OR 

The  Struwwelpeter  Papyrus. 

With  Full  Text  and  loo  Original  Vignettes. 

From  the  Vienna  Papyri. 

Respectfully  Dedicated  to  Children  of  All  Ages. 

4to  boards,     ^s.  6d. 

"A  delightful  children's  book,  in  which  the  various  discoveries  in 
Egyptian  antiquity  are  most  amusingly  parodied  in  the  well-known  style 
of  the  original  Struwwelpeter,  for  the  benefit  of  the  rising  generation. 
Both  the  letterpress  and  the  illustrations  are  wonderfully  humorous,  witty 
and  diverting,  and  the  skill  with  which  the  characteristics  of  Egyptian 
mythology  are  made  to  take  their  place  in  the  divertissement  of  the  whole 
is  quite  extraordinary.  The  book  is  altogether  delightful,  and  is  sure  to 
approve  itself  to  a  discerning  public."—  T/w  Bookseller. 


THE    BOOK: 

Its   Printers,   Illustrators,   and  Binders,   from 

Gutenberg  to  the  Present  Time. 

By  Henri  Bouchot,  of  the  National  Library,  Paris. 

With   a  Treatise  on  the  Art  of  Collecting  and  Describing  Early 

Printed  Books,  and  a  Latin-English  and  English-Latin 

Topographical  Index  of  the  Earliest  Printing  Presses. 

Containing  172  Facsimiles  of  Early  Typography,  Book  Illustrations, 

Printers'  Marks,  Bindings,  numerous  Borders,  Initials,  Head- 

and  Tail-Pieces,  and  a  Frontispiece. 

Royal  8vo,  vellum  cloth,     ^i   \s. 

"Beginning  with  the  Block  Books,  which  anticipated  by  a  few  decades 
the  discovery  of  Printing,  this  work  gives  an  account  of  the  rise  and  pro- 
gi-ess  of  Printing,  the  dispersion  over  Europe  of  the  German  printers,  the 
growth  of  Book  Illustration,  of  the  Binder's  Art,  and  all  similar  matter 
down  to  the  present  day." — AtheitcEtun. 

H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING   STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN,  LONDON,  W.C. 


10 

MANUAL   OF   BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Guide  to  the  Knowledge  of  the  Book,  Library 
Management,  and  the  Art  of  Cataloguing. 

With  37  Illustrations. 
By  Walter  T.  Rogers,  Inner  Temple  Library.  New  Edition, 
Enlarged.  Crown  8vo,  cloth.  $s. 
"To  this  little  work  the  printer,  the  bookbinder,  the  artist,  the  author, 
the  librarian,  the  bibliophile,  will  all  turn  with  interest,  and,  we  venture 
to  predict,  will  not  be  disappointed.  It  describes  '  The  Invention  and 
Progress  of  Printing,'  treats  elaborately  of  'The  Book,'  'The  Ornamenta- 
tion of  the  Book,'  '  The  Library  and  the  Catalogue,'  and  kindred  topics. 
A  useful  list  of  books  of  reference,  a  glossary,  and  an  index  are  added. 
The  book  is  nicely  got  up,  and  the  illustrations  add  to  its  beauty  and 
va.\ue."-^/'i/l>Hs/u'rs'  Circular. 


ART   IN    BOOK-PLATES. 

Forty-two    Original    Designs    for    Ex-Libris,    Con- 
ceived in  the  Style  of  the  Little  Masters  of 
the  i6th  Century,  by  Joseph  Sattler. 
Printed  in  Colours.      4to.      In  Portfolio.      £z  2s.  net. 
"  We  have  nothing,  it  seems  to  me,  so  fascinating  and  so  curious  as  the 
Book-Plates  of  Joseph  Sattler.    He  is  decorative,  weird,  quaint,  picturesque, 
humorous,  grotesque  by  turns.     There  seems  to  be  no  limit  to  his  inven- 
tion, no  bounds  to  his  ingenuity." — Studio. 

"One  of  the  most  remarkable  volumes  upon  our  subject  which  has  yet 
appeared." — Ex-Libris  Journal. 

"  The  book  of  the  year." — The  Book-Plate  Armorial  Year-Book. 


RARE    OLD    BOOK-PLATES 

of  the  15th  and  i6th  Centuries:  containing  100  Plates 

by  Albert  Dlirer,  H.  Burgmair,  H.  S.  Beham, 

Virgil  Solis,  Jost  Amman,  etc. 

Edited    by    F.    Warnecke. 

4to.     Roxburghe.     ^i  Zs.  net. 

"Book-Plates   are,   as  a    rule,  high-class  specimens  of  the  engraver's 

skill,  and  a  collection  of  them  really  forms  a  study  of  history — an  epitome 

of  the  rise  and  fall  of  historic  families.     In  Germany  much  greater  care  is 

bestowed   on  Book-Plates  than  in  this  country,  although  several  English 

artists  have  turned  out  work  not  unworthy  of  comparison  with  anything 

produced  on  the  Continent.      Small  collections  of  Book-Plates   by   Mr. 

Frederick  Warnecke  and  Professor  Hildebrandt,  and  other  artists,  have  just 

been  i)ublished  by  Messrs.  H.  Grevel  and  Co.,  Covent  Garden,  and  contain 

some  specimens  which  reach  the  mark  of  masterpieces  in  design  and  effect." 

— Daily  Telegraph. 

H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN,  LONDON,  W.C. 


OLD     SWORD     PLAY. 

By  Capt.  Alfred  Hutton. 

Author  of  "The  Swordsman, "  "  Cold  Steel,"  and  "  Fixed  Bayonets," 
etc. 

With   58  Illustrations  after  Alfieri,  Angelo,   Di  Grassi,  Liancourt, 

Marozzo,  De  la  Touche,  Weischner,  and  other  celebrated  Fencing 

Masters,  containing  a  Series  of  Studies  of  the  Swordsmanship 

of  the  i6th,   17th,  and  i8th  Centuries,  embracing  the 

Two-hand  Sword,  Rapier,  and  Dagger,  Broadsword 

and  Buckler,  "  Case  of  Rapiers,"  Early  Small 

Sword  Play,  etc. 

Royal  Svo.     Superfine  Dutch  paper.    Vellum  cloth,  extra.    (Limited 

to  300  copies.) 

Buckram,     ^i    is. 

' '  Captain  Hutton  has  compiled  and  arranged  the  lessons  in  his  book  so 
as  to  make  the  antique  methods  accessible  to  the  student  without  the  labour 
of  searching  through  many  ancient  volumes." — Graphic. 

"Captain  Hutton's  clear  and  concise  treatment  of  this  curious  form  of 
Sword  Play,  illustrated  as  it  is  by  plates  from  Marozzo  and  Di  Grassi,  is 
extremely  interesting.  This  latest  contribution  to  the  literature  of  fencing 
should  not  be  neglected  by  any  one  interested  in  that  fine  art." — Illustrated 
London  News, 

THE    SWORDSMAN  : 

A  Manual  of  Fence  for  the  Foil,  Sabre,  and  Bayonet. 

With  an  Appendix  consisting  of  a  Code  of  Rules 

for  Assaults,  Competitions,  etc. 

By  Alfred  Hutton,  late  Capt.  King's  Dragoon  Guards,  Author  of 

"Cold  Steel,"  "Fixed  Bayonets,"  etc. 

With  42  Illustrations. 

Crown  Svo,  cloth.     3.9.  bd. 

50  copies  printed  on  Whatman  paper,  bound  in  vellum  at  \os.  6d. 

"  Captain  Alfred  Hutton,  a  well-known  authority  on  the  subject,  has 
compiled  a  book,  which  should  prove  of  much  service  to  the  beginner,  and 
which  also  contains  many  useful  hints  to  the  more  accomplished  performer." 
— Morning  Post. 

' '  Books  of  the  kind  are  rare  in  English,  and  as  Captain  Hutton  is  a 
skilled  master,  and  his  method  carries  authority,  the  book  deserves  a 
welcome  from  all  who  are  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  good  swords- 
manship."— Scotsman. 

H,  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING   STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN,  LONDON,  W.C. 


12 
NAPOLEON    AT   HOME. 

The  Daily  Life  of  the  Emperor  at  the  Tuileries. 

By  Frederic  Masson. 

With  12  beautiful  Illustrations  by  F.  de  Mvrbach. 

2  vols.     Svo,  cloth,  gilt  top.     ^i  is. 

"  '  Napoleon  at  Home '  is  a  true  feast  for  all  interested  in  great  men."— 
Graphic. 

"  If  any  one  wants  to  know  in  the  fullest  detail  how  Napoleon  ate  and 
drank,  slept  and  woke,  took  his  bath,  shaved  and  made  his  toilet,  how  he 
worked  and  how  he  spent  his  rare  moments  of  leisure,  he  will  find  it  all 
set  down  in  M.  Masson's  laborious  pages."— TzV/^^j. 

"...  Most  entertaining.  This  book  will  be  widely  read  in  an  age 
whose  only  strong  passion  is  for  personal  gossip." — Daily  News. 


BISMARCK'S   TABLE   TALK. 

A  Biography  by  Anecdote.      With   Notes   and   an 
Introduction. 

Edited  by  Charles  Lowe,  M.A., 
Author  of  "Prince  Bismarck,  an  Historical  Biography,"  etc. 

Crown  Svo,  with  Portrait,  cloth,  gilt  top.     js.  6d. 

"  Mr.  Lowe  has  been  enabled  to  make  an  exceedingly  interesting  and 
entertaining  volume,  and  to  present  the  great  Chancellor  as  he  has  chosen 
to  show  himself  at  different  periods  of  his  life  in  the  freedom  of  familiar 
intercourse  and  in  the  confidence  of  private  friendship."— 7>;;/^j. 

"  An  amusing  and  instructive  book— one  which  will  greatly  help  English 
readers  to  understand  the  character  of  one  of  the  world's  greatest  men." — 
Daily  News. 

"The  eminently  readable  character  of  the  book  may  be  best  exemplified 
from  its  superabundance  of  amusing  anecdotes  and  sparkling  bons  mots.'"— 
Daily  Telegraph. 


H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33.  KING   STREET,  COVENT   GARDEN,  LONDON,  W.C. 


13 

THE    STUDENT'S    ATLAS    OF    ARTISTIC 

ANATOMY, 

For  the  Use  of  Sculptors,  Painters,  and  Students. 

With  Thirty-four  Plates. 

By  Charles  Roth,  Professor  of  Sculpture  at  the  Munich  Academy. 

Edited  by   C.    E.   Fitzgerald,    M.D. 

Fol.,  in  Portfoho.     ^i  5^-. 

"  Professor  Roth's  well-known  and  highly  valued  plates  of  the  human 

muscles  and    bones,   with   his   nomenclature   and    descriptive    notes,    are 

worthily  reproduced  in  this  complete  portfolio." — Athettisitm. 

' '  The  plan  of  the  Atlas,  which  has  been  considerably  enlarged  from  its 
original  form,  is  very  simple  and  convenient.  The  two  first  plates  repre- 
sent the  bony  framework  of  the  body,  and  the  eight  following  ones  the 
muscles  in  action.  The  figure  plates  are  carefully  dra\vn  and  admirably 
printed,  and  each  is  followed  by  an  explanatory'  plate,  in  which  the  parts 
depicted  are  numerated,  while  notes  are  added  directing  attention  to  those 
points  which  are  of  especial  interest  to  artists."' — Daily  Graphic. 

"The  plates  are  admirably  executed,  the  engraving  being  smooth  and 
even,  and  at  the  same  time  suiiiciently  vigorous  in  the  contrast  of  light  and 
shade.  Dr.  Fitzgerald's  translation  of  Professor  Roth's  work  is  altogether 
a  valuable  aid  to  the  study  of  artistic  anatomy,  and  in  itself  a  work  of  art. " 
— Lancet. 

MY  WATER  CURE. 

Tested    for    more    than   35   Years   for  the    Cure   of 

Diseases  and  the  Preservation  of  Health. 

By  the  Rev.  Sebastian  Kneipp, 

Parish  Priest  of  Woerishoven,  Bavaria. 

With  100  Illustrations  and  a  Portrait  of  the  Author. 

Complete  Copyright  Edition.     Enlarged  by  136  pages;    translated 

from  the  last  (the  36th)  German  Edition. 

Entirely  revised  by  the  Author,  with  50  additional  Illustrations 
of  Medicinal  Plants. 
8vo,  cloth,  396  pp.     6^-. 
"All   Germany    bears    witness   to   the    worth   of  his   regimen."' — The 
Guardian. 

H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING   STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN,  LONDON,  W.C. 


14 

"THUS  SHALT  THOU  LIVE  !  " 

Hints  and  Advice  for  the  Healthy  and  the  Sick  on  a 

plain,  rational  Mode  of  Living  and  a  natural 

Method  of  Curing. 

By  Sebastian  Kneipp,  Curate  of  Woerishoven    (Bavaria). 

Translated  from  the  19th  German  Edition. 

8vo,  cloth.     65'. 

First  Part  :  Conditions  of  Health  and  Means  of  Preserving  It. 
Second  Part  :  How  the  Cures  are  Effected  alter  Kneipp's  Method. 
Third  Part  :  A  Word  in  Conclusion. 

"  '  Thus  Shalt  Thou  Live  '  contains  an  immense  amount  of  good  advice 
on  a  host  of  other  subjects  besides  Water  Cure.  Father  Kneipp  writes 
about  absurd  fashions  in  dress,  properties  of  food,  the  'hardening'  of 
children,  eating  and  drinking,  and  hygienic  subjects  generally." — Echo. 


MY   WILL.     A  LEGACY   TO    THE   HEALTHY 
AND    THE    SICK. 

By  Father  Kneipp. 

Containing  Father  Kneipp's  final  directions  for  the 

application  of  his  Water  Cure  at  Home. 

With  29  Photographs  taken  from  life,  and  other  Illustrations. 
8vo,  cloth.  65. 
"  In  '  My  Will "  are  given  full  particulars  of  how  to  administer  baths  of 
different  kinds,  instructions  as  to  bandages  and  compresses,  a  list  of  diseases 
and  their  cures,  and  finally,  details  as  to  the  prei^aration  of  his  herbal  teas, 
powders,  and  tinctures,  etc.  There  is  a  simplicity  about  this  system  which 
is  undoubtedly  attractive." — The  Wcstininster  Gazette, 


FATHER   KNEIPP'S   PLANT-ATLAS, 

Describing,    and    Picturing    True    to    Nature    all 

Medicinal  Plants  mentioned  in  Father 

Kneipp's  Books. 

With  41  Coloured  Plates,  containing  69  specimens. 

8vo,  cloth  extra,  12^.  ^d. ;  also  with  uncoloured  Plates,  ']s.  6d. 

Everybody  is  enabled,  by  simply  consulting  the  "  Plant-Atlas,"  to  find 
out  for  himself  whatever  herb  he  will  have  to  look  for  in  woods  or  fields, 
and  thus  to  make  up,  in  a  most  pleasant  way,  that  "Family  Medicine- 
Chest  "  recommended  by  Kneipp. 


H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN.  LONDON,  W.C 


i5 

THE    CARE    OF   CHILDREN    IN    SICKNESS 

AND    HEALTH. 

Councils  on  the  Hygiene  of  Childhood. 

By  Father  Kneipp.     8vo,  cloth,     ^s. 
In  this  little  work  Father  Kneipp  sets  forth  the  happiness,  responsi- 
bilities and  duties  of  motherhood.      He  also  gives  simple  directions  for 
dealing  with  the  usual  diseases  of  children. 


CHEMISTRY   IN    DAILY   LIFE. 

Twelve    Popular    Lectures    by    Dr.    Lassar-Cohn,    Professor    of 

Chemistry  in  the  University,  Konigsberg. 
Translated  into  English  by  ]\I.  M.  Pattison  Muir,  M.A.,  Fellow  of 
Gonville  and  Caius  College,  Cambridge. 
With  21   Illustrations.      Crown  8vo,  cloth.     6^'. 
•'  We  have  nothing  but  praise  for  the  admirable  series  of  lectures  delivered 
by  Prof  Lassar-Cohn.     His  scheme  is  too  long  to  quote  in  detail,  but  it 
begins  with  the  composition  of  air  and  the  chemistry  of  breathing,  and 
goes  on  to  illumination,   foods,    agriculture,    explosives,   tanning,   paper- 
making,  soaps,  glass,  photography,  metals  and  alloys.      Nobody  could  fail 
to  be  interested  by  the  homely  method  of  setting  forth  difficult  facts,  and 
those  in  search  of  instruction  will  find  it  on  every  page." — Fa/i  Mall  Gazette. 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY 
TREATED    EXPERIMENTALLY. 

By  Dr.  Robert  LIjpke, 

Headmaster  of  the  Municipal  Dorothea  Rcalgymnasium,  and  Lecturer  in 
the  Imperial  School  of  Posts  and  Telegraphs,  Berlin. 

With  54  figures  in  the  text.     Demy  8vo.     ^s.  bd. 

Translated  from  the  Second  Edition,  Revised  and  Enlarged,  by 

M.  M.  Pattison  Muir,  M.A., 

Fellow  and  Lecturer  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College,  Cambridge. 

Electro-Chemistry  is  of  much  importance  alike  to  the  student  of  physics 
and  the  student  of  chemistry.  The  object  of  this  book  is  to  present,  in 
condensed  form,  the  results  of  the  chief  work,  most  of  which  has  been  done 
in  the  last  twenty  years,  and  much  in  the  last  ten  years,  in  this  department. 

The  book  deals,  firstly  with  the  recent  theories  of  electrolysis,  secondly 
with  van't  Hoffs  theory  of  solutions,  and  thirdly  with  the  osmotic  theory 
of  the  current  from  voltaic  cells.  The  leading  generalisations  in  each  o'f 
these  divisions  of  Electro-Chemistry  are  deduced  from  experiments  of  a 
simple  character,  which  are  fully  described.  This  method  of  founding  the 
scientific  conclusion  on  the  results  of  experiments  which  can  be  repeated 
in  the  lecture  room  and  the  laboratory  with  fairlv  simple  apparatus,  is  the 
characteristic  feature  of  the  book.  Attention  is  directed  from  time  to  time 
to  the  applications  of  Electro-Chemistry  in  arts  and  industries. 

H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN,   LONDON,  W.C. 


16 

MURET'S 

ENCYCLOPiEDIC  DICTIONARY  OF   THE 

ENGLISH   AND   GERMAN   LANGUAGES. 

Edited  by  Professor  Dr.  Ed.  Muret  and  Dr.  D.i Sanders. 

Unabridged  Edition. 

Now  ready.     English-German  Dictionary ,  2  Vols,  in 

24  Parts,  4to,  at  i^.  (>d.  each. 

And  German-English  Dictionary.     Part  I.     4to.     \s.  6d. 

MURET'S  DICTIONARY  is  the  Latest,  the  Largest,  and  by  far  the 
most  Comprehensive  of  all  English-German  Dictionaries.  It  is  the  only 
one  with  the  New  German  Orthogiaphy,  and  with  the  Pronunciation 
after  the  Phonetic  System  of  Toussaint-Langenscheidt.  It  contains  the 
Technical  Terms  in  Art,  Science,  Commerce,  and  Manufactures  ;  Anglo- 
Indian  words,  Provincialisms,  and  Americanisms  ;  and  is  distinguished  by 
its  clear  and  concise  arrangement,  as  well  as  by  appropriate  Examples. 
The  German-English  Part,  edited  by  Prof.  Dr.  D.  Sanders,  has  now 
begun. 

DICTIONARY    OF    THE    ENGLISH    AND 
GERMAN    LANGUAGES. 

By  Dr.  Fr.  Koehler. 

30th  Edition,  brought  up  to  date,  by  Professor  Dr.  H.  Lambeck. 

8vo,  cloth,  7s.  6d. 

"  When  a  dictionary  attains  its  thirtieth  edition  it  may  be  laid  down  with 
a  certain  amount  of  confidence  that  the  work  is  a  success,  and  that  those 
who  require  dictionaries  (and  who  does  not?)  have  found  it  to  be  a  good 
book  of  reference.  This  book  is  useful  to  the  German  learning  English  as 
well  as  to  the  Englishman  learning  German.  It  is  not,  as  so  many 
dictionaries  are.  a  one-sided  production  intended  for  use  by  the  students 
of  one  nationality  only.  The  present  edition  contains  several  new 
features  and  many  additions." — Publishers^  Circular. 


PRACTICAL   GRAMMAR    OF    THE    GERMAN 
LANGUAGE. 

With  Reading  Lessons,  and  a  German-English  and 

English-German  Vocabulary. 

By  William  Eysenbach. 

New  Edition.     8vo,  cloth.     3^.  6d. 

"It  is  decidedly  *  practical.''  We  like  the  gradual  mode  of  presenting 
difficulty  after  difficulty,  and  the  conversational  tone  of  the  exercises." — 
Schoolmaster. 

H.  GREVEL  &  CO.,  33,  KING  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN,  LONDON,  W.C. 


Date  Due 

-mmm 

w 

.     „ 

.^.i*"— 

^ 

PRINTED 

IN  U.  S.  A. 

